The Ape Star

In this award-winning chapter book about prejudice and justice, an orphan girl is adopted by a gorilla who owns a junkyard. A surprising friendship grows between them.

Jonna lives in an orphanage whose manager is strict and obsessed with cleanliness. Like all the other children, Jonna has only one dream: to be adopted by a well-dressed mother who smells of perfume. But one day, a beat-up car pulls up. The door opens and out step two thick hairy legs with muddy boots, followed by a belly as round as a barrel, and finally, a head like an overgrown pear. It’s a gorilla!

Surely the orphanage won’t let a gorilla adopt a child. But, to Jonna’s horror, the gorilla chooses her…

Eventually Jonna and the gorilla start to get along, until 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.

"Quirky characters make this a truly unusual coming-of-age tale."

"This explosion of the classic orphan adoption trope is laugh-out-loud funny while making plenty of points about outsiders and standing up for yourself."

"highly original and memorable."

"Just read this in one sitting, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s heartwarming, different, life-affirming and a story you want to be in!"

"a delight!"

Frida Nilsson (born 1979) is a Swedish children's writer whose first book was published in 2004. She has won numerous international shortlistings and prizes, including the August Prize, the German Youth Literature Prize and the Astrid Lindgren Prize.

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