FINISHED:
Oppel, Kenneth. (2010). Half brother. New York: Scholastic.

[Full review to come, but I REALLY liked this one and will nominate it for the ACL Distinguished Books List. And here it is:

It’s 1973, and thirteen year-old Ben’s father, a behavioral research scientist, brings home a week old baby chimpanzee whom he hopes the family will treat as a human while he attempts to teach him sign language. Only-child Ben is at first wary, but eventually comes to love and protect Zan (named after Tarzan) as if he really were a little brother, even going to great and extreme lengths to keep Zan around when it appears that he will be shipped off when the project is shut down. This is a straightforward, methodically plotted story that tackles such thought-provoking questions as “What makes a human a human?” and “What is a person?”, while delving into the issues of animal rights and the ethics of testing on animals. Emotionally riveting without being manipulative, there is a particularly well-handled, unsentimentally moving scence where, after the research project has been disbanded and he has been taken to a preserve where he’ll spend the rest of his days, Zan is stripped of everything that had once made him “human” with Ben despondently remarking, “We fooled him into thinking we were his real family.” Certain to incite discussion, this is stirring novel of family relationships and the ramifications of scientific posturing in the name of discovery. [Reviewed from ARC.]]

STARTED:
Law, Ingrid. (2010). Scumble. New York: Dial/Penguin/Walden Media.

[Do I deem it worthy of the ACL Distinguished List?]

*