The Ape Star

(Paperback)

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In this award-winning chapter book about prejudice and justice, an orphan girl is adopted by a gorilla who lives in a junkyard. Their growing friendship defies all odds. Now an animated movie.

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 old 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. Its a gorilla!

Surely the orphanage wont let a gorilla adopt a child. But, to Jonnas horror, the gorilla chooses her...

Jonna sleeps in a hammock, and in the evenings the gorilla reads Dickens in her worn armchair. Jonna and the gorilla have a lot in common. But just when theyve started to get along, a man from the council threatens to send Jonna back to the orphanage.

With funny dialogue and well-drawn characters, The Ape Staris 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 Skarsgrd (Thor: Ragnarok, Mamma Mia).

Translated from the Swedish edition by Julia Marshall.

Reviews

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

-- The Irish Times, Best Children's Books of 2022

"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."

-- The Listener, Top Children's Books of 2022, NZ

"highly original and memorable."

-- The School Reading List, UK

"Just read this in one sitting, I cant recommend it enough. Its heartwarming, different, life-affirming and a story you want to be in!"

-- Jo Bowers, Just Imagine

"a delight!"

-- ReadPlus, Australia

Author Bio

Frida Nilsson is a leading Swedish author who has been an August Prize nominee three times and won the Astrid Lindgren Prize in 2014. In 2017 she was selected as one of Europes best emerging writers for young people through the Hay Festivals Aarhus 39. Her books have been translated throughout Europe and nominated for the prestigious Youth Literature Prize in Germany and several literary awards in France. Nilssons writing is characterised by humour and sincerity. She writes about the big questions in lifefriendship, death and loveand has been compared to Roald Dahl and Astrid Lindgren.