In "Threatened," orphan Luc is rescued from debt servitude by an Arab man calling himself Professor, or Prof. Together, they travel deep into the jungles of Gabon to observe the behavior of chimpanzees. Luc sometimes finds Prof’s ideas ridiculous, but with no family or resources, he has little choice but to follow along.
As the two begin watching the chimps, Luc is shocked at their distinctive personalities and almost human emotions. Just as Luc is becoming accustomed to research in the forest, Prof mysteriously disappears and Luc finds himself all alone in a battle for survival in the forest.
It must be said that Luc’s personal story is a wildly implausible and unrealistic account that at times feeds into Western stereotypes about countries in Africa. But the well-developed chimpanzee characters and their struggles make the book compelling and worthwhile. And as a novel about animals – rather than a novel about Gabon – it works well. (Ages 8 to 12)
