Next of Kin, Roger Fouts
Next of Kin, Roger Fouts
List: $17.99 | Sale: $12.59
Club: $8.99

Next of Kin
What Chimpanzees Tell Us About Who We Are

Author: Roger Fouts, Stephen Tukel Mills

Narrator: Roger Fouts

Abridged: 4 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/01/1997

Categories: Nonfiction, Nature, Animals


Synopsis

Roger Fouts fulfilled humankind's age-old dream of talking to animals by pioneering communication with chimpanzees through sign language. Now, in Next of Kin, Fouts tells the dramatic story of his odyssey from novice researcher to celebrity scientist and caretaker of a family of chimpanzees, to his impassioned awakening as a crusader for the rights of animals.

At the heart of this captivating audiobook is Fouts's magical thirty-year friendship with Washoe, the chimpanzee he met when she jumped into his arms. We follow Washoe as she grows from a mischievous baby chimp fresh out of the NASA space program into the matriarch of a clan of chimpanzees. Living and conversing with these sensitive creatures has given Fouts a profound appreciation of how much we share with our closest biological relatives, and what they can teach us about ourselves.

This stirring tale of friendship, courage, and compassion will change forever the way we view our biological -- and spiritual -- Next of Kin.

About Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall, famous for her studies of chimpanzees, has established the Gombe Stream Research Centre in Tanzania; founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education, and Conservation; and created the Roots & Shoots program to inspire young people to implement local projects that promote care for animals, the environment, and the human community.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Hannah on October 26, 2017

Click here to watch a video featuring this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on September 25, 2015

This is probably my favorite non-fiction book. If you are wondering why I only gave it four stars: that is because some would say there is more truth in fiction. As a linguist, I loved reading the way the chimps learn language. Before the project fell apart, chimps were already teaching there young......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on January 21, 2008

When I was a little girl and signing as a means of communicating with chimps was covered in documentaries and in the pages of Life and Look and National Geographic as a sort of miracle, I thought that Jane Goodall and her colleagues lived unimaginably charmed lives. At the start of this memoir, one......more

Goodreads review by Matt on March 29, 2017

This is a powerful, life-changing book. It is a fluid mixture of entertaining narrative, heart-breaking details about the treatment of chimpanzees in laboratories, and engaging discourse about evolutionary theory, the development of language in chimps and humans, etc. Through the entirety of the book......more

Goodreads review by Lauri on October 09, 2007

This is one of the most powerful books I've ever read. At once, it is eye-opening, heartwarming, and heartbreaking. I cried and smiled and laughed and cried some more. You'll learn about everything from childhood autism, to the evolution of language, to the fight for the humane treatment of lab anim......more