Emma+Y.

=media type="custom" key="7797993" **Half brother by Kenneth Oppel**=

I feel like I can just jump into this book and make it come to life. I felt that this book __Half Brother__ by Kenneth Oppel, grabbed me with its description and emotion. With this much emotion, this story makes me sometimes cry and sometimes I just want to tell the dad that what he is doing is wrong.

**Topic**
This topic in Half Brother discusses human and chimpanzee behavior. The genre is realistic fiction because it could really happen in real life.

**Author's style**
The author's style is more descriptive and emotional with some humor in it. I really like how Oppel writes. The author captures you in the beginning of the plot, and makes you want to read more and more. Since it is realistic fiction, it's easy to believe the plot.

**Main characters**
There are four main characters. The first main character is Ben. He is a 13 year old boy in the beginning of story, and is Zan's best friend. He very is loving, caring, and nice to his mom and Zan. Next, there is Zan who is a chimp. Ben's family treats Zan like a human, but he is an animal that Ben's father is doing an experiment on. Zan is treated like part of the family. The way his behavior is described makes me think of a cute toddler which I love. Ben's father was nice when the story started, but later in the story he is sometimes mean and rough to both Ben and Zan. The way his character is written makes me not like him much, but makes the story interesting. Ben's mom is the last main character she is kind and sweet to Ben and Zan. I love her. She feels like she could be my own mom.

**Setting**
The setting takes place during the 1970's in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). It is very similar real world we live in now, unlike most science fiction settings. I can picture the setting as a big old wooden barn house. Iniside there is a little suite with a play room. Once you go through the other door in the playroom there is a yellow room with a crib, and a little desk, and a door leading outside to a playground and a wood sandbox. The rest of the house is older, made all out of wood. There is a lofty livingroom and a tiny kitchen. The house is on a farm surrounded with thick forests, big green fields and a small lake surrounded by mountains. There are only a few roads and most are dirt roads that lead to the family's property.

**Plot**
This book is about a boy named Ben and scientist his parents. They move to Victoria, BC because of Ben's fathers new job. One of his new science experiments is to teach a chimp to talk to humans using ASL, American Sign Language. When the experiment starts, Ben's dad loves Zan (the chimp). But Ben doesn't like Zan too much. Ben soon grows to like Zan, and his dad grows to dislike Zan. Ben's dad hires students to come and teach Zan words while the parents are at work. Soon, all eyes are on Zan. One day __Time Magazine__ comes to Ben's house to do an article on the project. While everyone is playing and taking pictures of Zan, one of the writers approaches Ben and asks him a few questions. One of the questions was, "Do you think of Zan as a pet or a brother?" Ben answered, "A brother." From there on, Ben thinks of Zan as a brother. As Zan gets older, he gets stronger and starts to bite people. Ben's parents decide in order to help Zan learn better, they will put him in a chair. But soon the chair has straps and is bolted to the ground. This does not help Zan learn. It only makes him angry. Ben's parents must get rid of the chair because the public does not approve of it. While all this is going on, Ben falls in love with a girl named Jennifer. Ben decides he is going to do an "experiment" on Jennifer to see if she likes him. Ben finds out she does like him, but Jennifer spends most of the summer in Europe. When she returns, she doesn't like Ben any more. Ben is super sad, and to make it worse, Ben's parents are talking about getting rid of Zan and project Zan because Zan is not using the lanuage correctly, even though he knows 60 words. To make things worst Ben's parents are running out of money to fund the project Zan.

**I think you would want read this book because...** It is about an interesting and cool topic - human and chimp behavior. This is also a funny and a sad book. It is a very touching and a very unique story. You would probably want to read this book for entertainment, and you would probably read this on your own time, or for fun.

**Overall opinion** I would really recommend this book to kids, teenager, and some adults because it is interesting and exciting. It is so exciting that you can't put it down until you finish it. It's way better than most science fiction I have ever read and now one of my favorites books.

[[image:half_brother_is_cooooooool.png width="246" height="348"]] For more about the author and his book please go to []
Photograph. // Worldcat //. © Copyright 2001-2008 OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. Web. 16 Dec. 2010. .

Oppel, Kennet h. // Half Brother //. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Print.