A Great Gorilla Book for Kids

A Stranger at Green Knowe was written by Lucy Boston and published fifty years ago. The main character is a young boy, Ping, a refuge who is staying at Green Knowe mansion in London. During a visit to the zoo, Ping meets a captive gorilla, Hanno,  and feels a strong connection to him. The early chapters of the book detail Hanno's life in the wild, and the trauma of his capture. The story then follows the events that happen after Hanno escapes from the zoo, and Ping discovers him living in a tangle of woods near Green Knowe.

Here's a quote from the second chapter, when Ping visits the zoo for the first time:

What had he in his innocence expected?...Certainly it had never occurred to him that an animal could be stripped of everything that went with it, of which its instincts were an inseparable part, and that you could have just its little body in a space of nothingness. as if looking at that told you anything but the nature of sorrow, which you knew anyway.

The book is a sensitive and detailed look at the life of a gorilla in the wild and in captivity.But it's also an exciting and suspenseful read, and will be enjoyed by children and adults alike, especially as a read-aloud.   A Stranger At Green Knowe was awarded the 1961 Carnegie Medal in Literature. Check out this book, and the others in the Green Knowe series, at your local libary.