HB – The Bookseller (UK)

Kenneth Oppel's standalone novel for young adults, HALF BROTHER, is a compulsively readable, extraordinarily gripping and moving book. Thirteen-year-old Ben's world is turned upside down when his research scientist parents adopt a newborn chimp into the family to raise as a human child in an experiment to see if they can teach it to communicate using language. This is a meticulously researched book and the development of the experiment is very absorbing, but it's Oppel's ability to realise the complexity of Ben's emotions towards his �half brother' which makes it a triumph. 

– The Bookseller (UK)