Baboon : a novel

Fourteen-year-old Gerry Copeland has mixed feelings about flying back to his parents' research camp in the African savanna. While his biologist mom and dad study baboon behavior, he'll be thinking about the video arcade and restaurants back in the city. Suddenly, their small plane's engine stutters and dies. They go down hard. Gerry wakes up thinking a baboon has broken his fall. He's shocked to realize the furry arm is his own. Somehow, he's become one of the beasts his parents are studying. Gerry's only chance is to stay with the baboon troop. His parents don't recognize him and he begins to lose hope he'll ever be human again. His final, desperate bid to turn back means giving up the animal family he's come to care about for the human family where he truly belongs. BABOON is the riveting story of one teenager's journey into the heart of the baboon world, where he confronts terrifying attacks by predators and humans, threatening behavior within the troop, and the day-to-day struggle to survive.

a Middle Reader Novel Finds A 14 Year Old Boy Transformed Into A Baboon After A Plane Crash. He Must Both Find A Way To Survive With And Care About His New Family And A Way To Return To His Human Parents Where He Belongs.

ellen Fadercopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal

gr 5-9
gerry, 14, And His Parents Are Returning To The African Savannah After Six Months In London When Their Plane Crashes, Killing The Pilot. When Gerry Resumes Consciousness, He Discovers That He Has Come To Live In The Body Of A Baboon That Is Part Of The Group That His Biologist Parents Are Researching. He Uses His Human Intellect And Powers Of Reason To Ensure His Survival And Growing Acceptance By The Troop; He Also Documents His Gradual Loss Of His Ability To Count And Read And Track The Passing Days. After Eight Months As A Baboon, A Terrifying Incident With A Leopard Triggers The Teen's Re-entry Into His Own Body. The Author Soundly Grounds His Novel In Accurate Scientific Detail About Baboons. In Spite Of The Less-than-satisfying Ending In Which Doctors Attempt To Convince Gerry That He Dreamed The Entire Experience While He Was In A Coma, Readers Craving Adventure And Nature-based Drama Will Find This An Engrossing Follow-up To Gary Paulsen's hatchet (s & S, 1987) And A Logical Introduction To Peter Dickinson's eva (delacorte, 1989).

"When the plane he is on with his zoologist parents crashes, fourteen-year-old Gerry Copeland finds himself in the body of a baboon, where he must learn to survive within the troop while convincing his parents that he is their son."--Source inconnue