“Rescued” is the 3rd in what author Eliot Schrefer calls his “Ape Quartet”. The first 2 in the series have been National Book Award nominees, and from my reckoning this volume deserves equal honors. This is the first entry that’s set in America, and it deals with a family who opens their home to a pet orangutan. The consequences are laid out in the very first chapter, and they’re both stark and shocking. The story doesn’t let up from there, either. Schrefer sets up a pat ending, but that’s not where he leaves it. I’ve very rarely been this affected by a YA tale.

Highly recommended. ( )