FernFolio

Fourteen year-old Gerry Copeland has mixed feelings about spending six months of every year living in a camp on the African veldt while his scientist parents study baboons. He misses his friends, going to the movies, watching television, indoor plumbing. Returning from a supply run to Arusha, where they have stocked up on food and materials, Gerry looks at the rainstorm from the plane window and worries about getting back safely to camp. When one of the plane’s engines stalls, the pilot yells at Gerry and his father to throw the cargo out through the cargo doors, but it rapidly becomes clear the plane is going down.
Gerry regains consciousness to find himself surrounded by baboons, only these animals seem much larger than those in the troop his parents are studying. The baboons appear to be conferring about him, then one of the baboons draws closer, and Gerry notices he has no eyes, that his face seems almost mask-like. The baboon presses his muzzle to Gerry’s face, and the boy has the sensation that the baboon’s face melds with his own.
When he next awakens, Gerry finds himself lying in the grass, close to where his parents’ baboon troop is foraging. He is shocked to discover that he has somehow been transformed into a baboon, or, perhaps, that his spirit has come to occupy a baboon’s body. After a terrifying encounter with a leopard, Gerry realizes that he needs to make a place for himself within the troop if he is going to survive. Drawing upon his recollections of his parents’ discussions about baboon behaviour, he learns to forage for food, stay alert for predators, and negotiate the intricacies of baboon social structure. He also attempts to communicate with his parents, who are trying to come to terms with the knowledge that their son, lying in a coma in a hospital in Kondoa, will very likely never regain consciousness.
David Jones has written a gripping story, one that sweeps the reader into life in a baboon troop on the African veldt. Gerry’s transformation into a baboon is entirely believable within the context of this story, and his wry internal conversations, both with himself and his gloomy friend, Milton, are both endearing and amusing. A strange and wonderful tale!
FernFolio Editor