Author(s): Frida Nilsson

Children & Young Adult

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.

With funny dialogue and well-drawn characters, The Ape Star is a heart-warming and unconventional story for confident readers. Exploring themes of outsiders and standing up to authority, this illustrated novel for independent readers is about love, adoption, friendship, and seeing from different perspectives.

Includes illustrations from the movie animation, starring Stellan Skarsgård (Thor: Ragnarok, Mamma Mia).