HB – Globe and Mail

Half Brother is fast-moving, engagingly told and smart. Beyond Ben's unique preoccupation with Zan, Oppel takes pains to give his protagonist more typically adolescent concerns. Ultimately, this novel is about much more than an abandoned experiment in interspecies communication. Through Ben, Oppel gracefully underscores the true value in reaching Zan: Not to profit from teaching him to perform tasks, but to grasp the world as a non-human perceives it.

– Globe and Mail