Half BROTHER -- ARINZE MGBEMENA

         

           Ben Tomlin is a 13 year old boy, growing up in Canada in 1973 and experiencing everything that life as a 13 year old boy would normally experience. Zan is an infant chimp, literally pulled away from his mother  just eight days of age. He is now being raised as part of Ben's family for a university experiment on primates and language, which Ben’s father is leading. This experiment was performed to discover if another species can be taught to understand and communicate the human language. From the very first day Zan is with their family, Ben’s parents tell him about what the experiment is for and why Zan is living with them. His father talks about the importance of Zan being brought up to believe that he is a human. Zan wears clothes, eats at the table with the Ben's family , and plays with Ben’s toys, just like a normal human child. The Tomlins teach Zan how to communicate using American Sign Language  so they can talk to him more and he can interact more with them. Ben understands the experiment, but he is kind of confused on how his father’s and his mother’s interacting with Zan. His father, opposed to even giving Zan a name. He never leaves the boundary of the experiment, and does not try to listen to anyone or anything that challenges his ideas of how the experiment should go. His mother is more nurturing. She recognizes that Zan’s need confronting and  tries to be a mother figure for Zan, while at the same time not messing with the experiment.
As Zan gets older , and the experiment becomes more difficult to work with, the Zan Project begins to spiral out of control. At this point, Ben finds an friend in Peter, an student research assistants working on the project. Like Ben, Peter sees Zan is a living being with real needs and emotions.  Peter and Ben attempt to find a way out of what has become a tragic trap for Zan.

         What was most interesting thing to me about the book is how they treated Zan as a human child and he acted like a one too. I also liked how Ben was trying to take Zan away from the experimentation and show that he is just a living being not an experiment . I enjoyed the book very much and i would recommend it to anyone.  

dEAD CONNECTION -- BY ARINZE MGBEMENA

         This book talks about two very different characters trying to discover the fate of a high school cheerleader who disappeared from a small California town. This cheerleaders' name was Nikki. When she goes missing without a trace, her disappearance devastates the community. A boy named Murray, a loner in high school, who quietly conserves himself and Murray also talks with the spirits of dead children and adolescents in the local cemetery, hears a voice one day while in the cemetery and he wonders whether it could be Nikki.The sheriff Gates thinks that a man who has come through social services may know more than anyone suspects . Throughout the book, Murray and Gates work separately to discover Nikki's case, while also going through their own individual problems. The book also demonstrates how each exchange alters not only Murray and Gates but those with whom they are in involved with them through the journey. Even people like the cemetery caretaker and his daughter, both play big roles in Murray's journey through the book.
     
       An interesting thing about Dead Connections it was never boring it gave a full background check about the characters and the plot. It was a very great mystery book the, characters were very interesting to read about especially Murray. Learning that he listens to ghosts and talks to them and how dedicated he is to knowing what happened to Nikki was very nice to read about. I would recommend this book to anyone It is a great book. 

Ella Minnow Pea -- review by Arinze Mgbemena

      In the book Ella MINNOW PEA there is a girl named Ella who lives on an island Nollopton. On this island, they are not well educated with modern day technology and there a small island. The island has a letter written about 100 years ago hung up for everyone to see, this note has every letter in the alphabet on it it says "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." One day, one of letters falls down the letter Z and the council of the island decides that no one should ever use that letter again so everyone is now scared to talk, and the letter Q falls, people are getting more scared except for a man named William Crevy he says what he wants and his caught saying a word with the letter Q in it and he was banished from the island. In the story Ella writes notes to her pen pal Tessie about the whole situation and as time goes by more letters fall off and Ella tells Tessie that what the council is doing maybe wrong so she goes to the council and ask them if she can make another sentence that has all the letters in the alphabet they say if she can do that then everyone can talk normal again. More and more letters fall off and the council finally decides to just take the sign off and everyone is allowed to talk normal again.
   
     This book was very strange to me because throughout most of the book were letters written to Ella and Tessie, but i thought  the book was very interesting how the island people were and how they lived their lives. It was  a great read and I'd recommend it to anyone.