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My class has read the book Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel. After we finished reading it, we watched Project Nim, the documentary about what really happened. There were many similarities and differences between the book and documentary. Some things were disturbing and new.

The book Half Brother and the movie Project Nim have many similarities. Many of the people in the documentary reminded me of people from the book. For example Stephanie reminded me of Sarah, and Lily reminded me of Rachel. In both the book and the documentary Nim and Zan bit many people. LEMSIP is like the Hughston Foundation; they’re the lab’s Nim went to, and Zan almost went to. Other similarities are Nim being on the front page of the news, and Zim liking the cat.

There were many differences between the book and movie. In the documentary Nim was afraid of the world, and switched families a lot. In the documentary Nim smoked and drank alcohol, acting a lot more like a human than a chimp. Nim was going to go to court for a trial, but in the book that never happened. Another difference is that Nim had more chimps to play with.

I learned many things in the documentary. I knew that chimps were strong, but I never knew how strong, like dragging Stephanie across his cage. I never knew that chimps needed more chimps to be happy. I didn’t know that chimps were very forgiving, Zan wasn’t very forgiving, he didn’t forget who wronged him, and got revenge. I didn’t know how aggressive chimps were, like when Nim threw a poodle across a room and killed it.

Some parts made me very happy, and others were disturbing. Seeing Nim learning new signs, and using them effectively, made me happy. When Nim hugged the kitty I couldn’t help but smile. When Nim made up his own sign for play, I thought he was so smart, and made me happy. However, seeing Nim in those small cages, were sad and disturbing. When Nim and the other chimps went to the LEMSIP lab, and got tested on was disturbing too. Another disturbing part was when Nim got tazed.

I really enjoyed reading Half Brother and watching Project Nim. There are still some questions I was left with. How many tests did Nim go though before he was saved by the Black Beauty Ranch? What happened to Nim and Lily’s baby? What happened to all the other chimps like Lulu, Ben, and Mitch?

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by foshie

My class is reading a book called Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel. Half Brother is about a boy, Ben Tomlin, and his family adopting a chimp, Zan, for a project. This project is to teach a chimp sign language. So, Ben and his family took a chimp from the wild, and are trying to teach him sign language, with the help of university students. My class had the choice to answer one out of three questions, I chose to answer the question: Peter describes Zan’s situation – being taking from the wild and brought up as a human – as a “kind of slavery” (p. 161). What does he mean by this? Do you agree or disagree? Explain.

cc licensed ( BY )  flickr photo shared by VinothChandar

Peter describes Zan’s situation- being taken from the wild and brought up as a human- as a “kind of slavery”. By this Peter means that taking Zan from his home and making him learn sign language is wrong and like slavery.

I agree with Peter taking Zan from his home and teaching him sign language is like a “kind of slavery”. Zan was taken from his home and is being taught sign language, which isn’t fair to Zan. Zan should be with his family, not being used as an experiment.Zan is another helpless animal being tested on. Zan is being tested on, seeing if they can teach him sign language. Even though he’s not getting hurt or anything, it’s still animal testing. Zan can’t help himself, by saying/signing he doesn’t like being tested on. Like other animals being tested on can’t. Zan being taken from his home in the wild and being brought up like a human is like a kind of slavery.

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by phillipstony
What’s your opinion? Do you think taking an animal from it’s home and testing on it is wrong? Does your opinion change if the animal is treated well?

My class is reading Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel. We are reading this book on Skype with a class in Snow Lake, Manitoba.  Half Brother is about a family that adopts a chimp, and tries to teach him sign language.

In the story Half Brother, Ben and his family try something new, and adopt a chimp. This reminds me of when I had a family get together at Alora Gorge. I tried something new and went tubing, I wasn’t sure about it at first, like Ben wasn’t sure about Zan. Tubing turned out to be a lot of fun, like Ben is starting to like Zan. cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by patries71