The Ape Star by Frida Nilsson, about an orphan girl who forms a bond with the junkyard-dwelling gorilla who adopts her.
In this an award-winning chapter book about outsiders and unconventional love, an orphan girl is adopted by a gorilla who lives in a junkyard and a surprising friendship grows between them.
A dirty old Volvo pulls up in front of the orphanage and out steps a gorilla. She’s as thick as a barrel with a head like an overgrown pear. Of all the orphanage’s 51 children, it is Jonna who, to her horror, is chosen by the gorilla. She had been dreaming of a well-dressed mother who smells of perfume, and now she’s going to live in a scrapyard.
Jonna sleeps in a hammock, and in the evenings the gorilla reads Dickens in her worn armchair. It turns out Jonna and the gorilla have a lot in common. But just when they’ve started to get along, a man from the council threatens to send Jonna back to the orphanage.
The Ape Star is a heartwarming and unconventional chapter book about love, adoption, friendship, and seeing from different perspectives.---from the publisher
144 pages 9781776574216 Ages 8-12
Keywords: gorilla, orphans, love, adoption, friends, friendship, 8 year old, 9 year old, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old
