Douglas Preston: Jennie (USA 2006)

From the Publisher:
On a research trip to West Africa, Dr. Hugo Archibald of the Boston Museum of Natural History encounters an orphaned baby chimpanzee. Archibald decides to bring the ape, whom he names Jennie, back to Boston and raise her alongside his own two young children as a kind of scientific experiment.

Jennie captures the hearts of everyone she encounters. She believes herself to be a human being. She does almost everything a human child can, from riding a tricycle to fighting over the television with her siblings to communicating in American Sign Language.

Told from shifting points of view of those closest to Jennie, this heartwarming and bittersweet novel forces us to take a closer look at the species that shares 98 percent of our DNA and ask ourselves the question: What does it really mean to be human?

Douglas Preston's Jennie, based on the real story of the chimpanzee who inspired Curious George, is the celebrated novel that was made into the award-winning Disney television film The Jennie Project. It was translated into many languages and became a worldwide bestseller.

Douglas Preston: Jennie. A Novel. Forge, ISBN: 0765315610 (February, 2006), 302 p., $13.95.

Douglas Preston: Jennie (USA 1994)

From the Publisher:
When Professor Hugo Archibald finds an orphaned baby chimp in Africa, it seems like the most normal thing in the world for him to bring the brave little toddler home to Boston to live with his wife and two small children.

Jennie quickly assimilates into mid-sixties suburban life, indulging in the rambunctious fun one would expect from a typical American kid of her generation: riding breakneck on her own tricycle, playing with Booger the kitten and a Barbie doll, fighting with her siblings over use of the TV, and - as a teenager - learning to drink, smoke pot, and curse just like her human peers.

Attaining an impressive command of American Sign Language, Jennie absorbs a warped vision of heaven from a neighborhood minister, experiences first-hand the bureaucracies of the American health-care system, and even has her own fifteen minutes of fame. Jennie's story - hilarious, poignant, and ultimately tragic - introduces to American literature one of the most endearing animal heroines in modern fiction...

Douglas Preston: Jennie. A Novel. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312112947 (October, 1994), 302 p., $21.95.