Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about apes is in this book by an author who has studied ape behavior for about half a century. Readers will learn ape basics: anatomy, diet, and ape social life. And maybe even more intriguing, some traits humans share with their primate cousins. Planet Ape is the kind of book you leave lying around to look at photos and read fascinating tidbits between homework assignments.

This book really lives up to its name. While reading it, I discovered so much about the great apes. Afterward, I felt like a professional zoologist.

The book was full of information on apes of course, but really everything: their history in detail, their family tree, their social life, and their present situation with humans. Did you know that not all ape species live together, that male orangutans live almost all by themselves? I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the author made it to understand all the topics, especially the social life and the evolution part. The author made the book fun to read and made you want to learn more.

What made Planet Ape so interesting was that you could feel that the author truly loved apes. He made you fall in love with them! The amazing pictures and layout were the icing on the cake. I cannot describe the book in just one word because there are too many that can be used — fantastic, amazing, beautiful, interesting, fabulous.

I would give the book a score of 10 out of 10. The book is not just for ape lovers, but also for everyone with the slightest bit of interest in them or animals in general.

(Originally published in the July/August 2010 issue of YES Mag.)