ORPHANED

The last entry in a quartet by Schrefer (Mez’s Magic, 2018, etc.) chronicles an imagined early encounter between a human child and a gorilla family.

The setting is Africa’s Great Rift Valley 600,000 years ago, when volcanic eruptions changed the landscape, bringing early humans into contact with apes for the first time. The story is written in free verse from the point of view of a young female gorilla, Snub, whose family group consists of Mother; Brother; baby brother, Breath; two older females, Wrinkled and Teased; and Silverback, the alpha male. A volcanic eruption disrupts the little group, and Snub becomes a leader, in charge of baby Breath and Brother, as she negotiates a perilous, rapidly-changing landscape in search of hospitable habitat for her family. The main threat comes not from the volcano but from the “not-gorillas,” early humans who, although physically weaker, have superior skills and use rocks as tools and missiles to attack the gorillas. The titular orphan is a young girl who befriends the small gorilla family and helps to protect and defend them with her human abilities. Scientific accuracy paired with lyrical, subjective language describing the young gorilla’s impressions of her surroundings and bodily needs make this book an imaginative, eloquent evocation of a little-known era in prehistory from an animal’s viewpoint.

A plausibly authentic account skillfully avoiding risk of excessive anthropomorphism.