APE HOUSE

APE HOUSE by Sara Gruen was read for the What's in a Name 5 Challenge (type of house).

From the back of the book:

Isabel Duncan, a scientist at the Great Ape Language Lab, doesn't understand people, but apes she gets - especially the bonobos Sam, Bonzi, Lola, Mbongo, Jelani, and Makena, who are capable of reason and communication through American Sign Language.  Isabel feels more comfortable in their world than she's ever felt among humans - until she meets John Thigpen, a very married reporter writing a human interest feature.  But when an explosion rocks the lab, John's piece turns into the story of a lifetime - and Isabel must connect with her own kind to save her family of apes from a new form of human exploitation.

This was a great book.  It was basically a love story - between Isabel and the six apes she considered as her family.  These apes were almost human - they could speak to Isabel and understand what was being said to them.  They used a lexigram board - symbols that represent words - to speak, along with the ASL.  They exhibit the same wants and needs and fears as we do.  After the explosion at the lab, the apes disappear and Isabel must find them.  When she finally does and sees what is being done to them, she moves Heaven and Earth to get them back.

The author's notes at the end of the book tell how she first heard about the bonobo apes at a place called the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa.  She went there and was able to connect and communicate with the apes.  I had never heard of bonobos before reading this book, and I had no idea of their intelligence and the language studies being done.  I love reading a book that makes me want to learn something new, and this book did just that.