Ape House Author to Speak at Highland Park Public Library

Highland Park kicks off this fall's One Book, One Highland Park program tomorrow night with an opportunity to meet Ape House author Sara Gruen.

Gruen, the best-selling author of 2006's Water for Elephants, released Ape House just last month. The book follows six bonobo apes as they use sign language to communicate with people through their wanderings from a laboratory in Idaho to a reality TV show in New Mexico.

"It does make you compare human interaction with animal interaction," said Jennifer Dotson, Executive Assistant to the City Manager and head of Highland Park Poetry.

Gruen has a knack for emphasizing the similarities between humans and animals, something she did to much critical acclaim with Water for Elephants, a work of historical fiction that focuses on elephants in a traveling circus during the Great Depression. 

"All of Sara Gruen's writing tends to be very affected by animals," Dotson said.

Dotson thought Ape House was entertaining and admires Gruen for doing her homework about bonobos. Gruen asked to visit apes at Great Ape Trust in Iowa and then modeled the apes in her book on the ones she met there.

"She created knapsacks that she filled with things she thought the apes would enjoy," Dotson said. The apes liked her treats so much that when Gruen asked if the apes would see her, she was told, "They're insisting on it."

In addition to tomorrow's Meet the Author, the One Book, One Highland Park events include:

• A book discussion led by noted book discussion leader Judy Levin on Oct. 13.
• A presentation by Lincoln Park Zoo's Dr. Elizabeth Lonsdorf and Steve Ross, who recently compiled a book about chimpanzees, on Nov. 4.

All events are free and take place at the Highland Park Public Library at 7 p.m.