The Boy Who Spoke Chimp, by Jane Yolen

[rachelmanija]

The continuing adventures of reviews of books I read a while ago but never got around to writing up.

Front cover: An earthquake leaves Kriss stranded with an old hermit and a "talking" chimp!

Back cover: Capers for every kid. Adventure. Mystery. Science fiction & fantasy. Hilarious escapades... by many of today's favorite authors.

This is why thrift stores are great sources of books. I can't imagine finding this weird little unknown work-for-hire book by a very famous author in a regular bookshop, and indeed I never have. I had vague recollections of reading this book as a kid, though I had not remembered the author (I probably read it before I read any of Yolen's more typical works), and recall finding it rather disturbing. I re-read it as an adult. For a very short kiddie adventure novel, it actually is rather disturbing.

The beginning introduces Kriss, a clumsy California boy who wears glasses. His father refuses to take him camping on the grounds that he's so terrible in the outdoors that he'll instantly break his leg, his glasses, and get poison ivy. Annoyed, Kriss decides to sneak out and hike to his grandmother's house. He'll show them!

It is mentioned in passing that a few years previously, there was a huge earthquake and Los Angeles fell into the ocean.

Kriss hitches several rides to get to the wooded area through which he plans to hike. I check the copyright date. Huh, I guess in 1981 the idea of a kid hitch-hiking wasn't OMG SHOCKING, because nothing is made of that. His last ride is with a guy transporting caged signing chimpanzees to a lab. Then the Big One hits! The truck crashes. The driver is killed. All of this is described in pretty vivid detail - again, especially, for a book intended for eight-year-olds.

Kriss releases the chimps, who stick with him. I have to say, after reading about the guy whose chimp ate his face, I would have regretfully left them where they were. But these are nice signing chimps, not face-eating chimps, and they and Kriss wander around the wilderness, helping each other and fleeing the people who immediately reverted to cannibalism pet dog-eating - okay, I guess Yolen did make a concession to the age of her audience. Then one of the chimps falls into a crevasse and is killed.

Kriss then runs into an old vegetarian hermit named Chris. They have adventures together, including trying to rescue some pets from a pet store (most are already dead - I told you this was dark), but he does get another chimp. Then Chris has a heart attack. Surprisingly, he does not die. They are medevaced out by a mysterious, possibly sinister helicopter, and Kriss releases the chimps into the wild and certain death lest the helicopter people do something awful to them. Kriss still has no idea whether or not anyone in his family is still alive.

The end! Only not, because Yolen has an author's note discussing signing chimps. It concludes - this is the last line of the book - But even though scientists may disagree about the talking chimps, they all agree that there is a real possibility that one day California will have a different coastline than the one it has today. Have a nice day, California readers! It is scientific fact that one day you and your family may be killed in a giant earthquake!

I don't give this an "awesomely depressing" because it doesn't actually read that way, despite the dead people, dead chimps, dead dogs, dead pets, possibly dying buddy, and possibly dead family. It reads as an entertaining but slight adventure that would probably have been more memorable at a longer length. But seriously, that author's note! What was she thinking?

The Boy Who Spoke Chimp (Capers)

So, what weird children's books do you recall, or wonder if you imagined? Have you read any of them as an adult? How were they?

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

I read Yolen's "Commander Toad" series when I was an adult, despite the fact that the child I was reading them to didn't like them much. (The puns went over her head without parting her hair. But I thought they were great.)

[justice-turtle.livejournal.com]

*geology student eyeroll* L.A. is not going to fall into the ocean, author-of-this-book.

I mean, we all know that (or should). But what is going to happen - and I mention this because I've always thought it would be a really amusing premise for a Douglas-Adams-y tone of far-future apocalypse novel - is that L.A. will keep scooting northward until it meets up with Oakland and Sausalito.

Different coastline? Yes. TERRIFYING APOCALYPSE END-OF-THE-WORLD SCENARIO? Quite possibly (I kid because I love you, California). Earthquakes killing lots of people on the way? Undoubtedly. :-( But no falling into the ocean. ;P

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I probably read all sorts of things I've totally forgotten. The weirdest thing I can remember offhand is Nicholas Fisk's Space Hostages, which is objectively probably not THAT weird. In the context of the other SF I was reading at the time (Heinlein juveniles and the like) it seemed weirder. I seem to recall reading it at least twice despite not being entirely sure I liked it.

I can't say anything more specific since I recall almost none of the details. I would have no idea which book it was except that Jo Walton mentioned it in passing a while back.

[isabelknight.livejournal.com]

After the revelation that this was apparently part of a series of weirdly grim children's books, I had to google the "Capers" series. They only get weirder. I now really want to read the one about the kids who who go jogging and inadvertently "run out of time!" (and perhaps geography) and into the middle of Spartacus's slave revolt. I'm willing to bet that one would definitely qualify for the "awesomely depressing" tag - at least one of the kids has got to get crucified, right?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

"I! Am! CHIMPANZEE!"

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I loved that book! (possibly just because I liked running and time travel) I don't remember the plot, except that I didn't find it depressing, and the kids returned to the present day without being crucifed.

(--an anonymous lurker)

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I loved the "My Father's Dragon" books. They are seriously weird, but very entertaining if you're about ten. I found copies as an adult but am hesitant to read them because I don't want the magic destroyed.

One of my oldest friends knew Roger Fouts and has a picture of himself with Washoe.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I adored the "My Father's Dragon" series. I remember the kids peeled oranges, and then the kids ate the orange and the dragons ate the peel. Weird how the little details are often all you really remember...

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

I recommend the My Father's Dragon books - they address adventures in a sweet and cozy fashion, no one gets hurt although there is danger, and the illustrations compelled me to make a series of smallish stuffed dragons for my younger child. One of which is named Eustacia.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, for some reason that had me just laughing and laughing. It must be your synopsis.

What's with the names of Kriss and Chris being homophones? It's like authorial brain freeze on names, maybe?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I was laughing and laughing when I was reading it. It was just so hilariously, "And then the driver dies! And then the dog gets shot and dies! And then the chimp falls off a cliff and dies! And then there's a store FULL OF DEAD PETS!"

I think the names are supposed to be symbolic. Um. Of something. I was half-expecting Chris to turn out to be Kriss's older self, which would actually make a lot of sense, but no.

Yolen has written lots of absolutely wonderful work, but this was not one of her better days.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I showed the review to the healing angel. By the time he got to your message to California readers, he was in tears of laughter.

Yeah, I do like Jane Yolen as an author generally! (I mean, I think? Actually, I only really know her picture book Letting Swift River Go, which is about the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir a stone's throw from where I live--and I like that book--but more generally, I have the impression that I like her stuff.)

Jane Yolen

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Oh! You would love Jane Yolen! Get one of her collections of short stories, immediately.

I also really love her novels Dragon's Blood, a really well-done children's novel mashing up several stories which I like individually (bond-with-magical-animal/escape slavery/gladiatorial combat) and Sister Light, Sister Dark, a really trippy, Jungian fantasy in which a society of women can pull their "dark sisters" from mirrors. In both cases, there are sequels which I do not recommend.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

My parents used to read devotional books at the table over breakfast; they were Family Devotionals, so definitely aimed at the elementary school reading/interest level. One was all discussions of various interesting animals, and then some convoluted simile at the end to make it religious. It included dramatically horrifying chapters on both vampire bats and piranhas, but concluded with a reassuring note that those were only found in the jungles of South America, so don't worry, kids!

Two guesses as to where we were living at the time.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Oh God. That made me laugh and laugh.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

(It didn't take me long to agree to go into the rivers during the weekly school swimming trips again, but I think it was a solid month before I could sleep at night without the sheets over my head.)

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Oh, *dear*.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Hahahahah.

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

Many things, but for me the most unexpected was one of Walter Farley's horse books that veered abruptly into the deeply surreal, and then back again. I mean, people turned into birds. I think it was the Island Stallion Races.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

There are aliens in it.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I was always think of the Island Stallion races when I think of WTFFBQ books. I was certain I'd hallucinated that one. And yet no.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

There was a culture where you chopped one syllable off the name with each generation: Dradredridrodrude had a kid named Dredridrodrude and so on, and the hero's best friend was Drude. IIRC the hero asked what Drude's son would be named and got no answer.

Somebody on LJ finally recognized this book: it's Drujienna's Harp. All that stuck with me was the names and the climax, at which the hero shouts "Play, Drujienna! Play!"

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I read that one! It was very strange. In retrospect, I think it was an allegory or possibly political satire.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

That's the main thing that stuck in my mind: "This is a very weird book."

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think the idea of a kid hitchhiking would be pretty startling in 1981. At least, where I lived.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I think I might have read this one! Or it was another one about a kid who got caught up in The Big One, but the chimps sound vaguely familiar.

My weirdest one was a kids' book about a piano prodigy and his twin brother; the prodigy was very mechanical and running out of the end of his 'wow, ain't this kid great' age, and the family was trying to figure out, essentially 'what next' when the other brother starts composing. The prodigy plays this music with a warmth and energy he gives to no other performance (I wonder if the brother was autistic or kind of Asperger's-y? I don't remember for sure, there was something.) Anyway, it all turns out ((SPOILERS)) that the boys are together the reincarnation of a single pianist and composer whose hands were severed from his body when he died. I remember being at once impressed and kind of baffled. I actually found the title once but I've forgotten it. Again.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Wasn't that by William Sleator? Hands or Fingers or some such?

Bingo! Fingers

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

That's the one, yes! They aren't twins, though, I'd misremembered that (perhaps wanting the reincarnation to be more rational?). I'd also forgotten that it was (sort of) historical fiction.