The Ape Star

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. It’s a gorilla!

Surely the orphanage won’t let a gorilla adopt a child. But, to Jonna’s 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 they’ve 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 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).

Translated from the Swedish edition by Julia Marshall.