It’s set in the seventies in Canada. Thirteen year old Ben has to move with his scientist parents to accommodate their newest experiment: raising a chimp as if it were a human child. Ben is at first against the project, but baby Zan (named by Ben after Tarzan) charms him quickly. So while trying to integrate into a new school and pursuing a cute girl, Ben helps out with the experiment. In order to get results his father makes some really stupid decisions about the direction the experiment should take…and problems occur for everyone.
Like all chimp in the family books I have read there are some departures from likely reality near the end of the story, but the whole is an excellent novel that examines what it is to be human, the relationship between father and son…and brother and half-brother, and what it’s like to be thirteen—that wicked inbetween time. Ben is one of the most real thirteen year olds I have read.
Highly recommended if you like chimps and more fun if you grew up in the 70’s.