Chimpy Discovers His Family

This book is dedicated to all those people who believe that

a family is created by any people who love each other.

Thank you to Matthew for your love, support and editing

skills during this long process. Thank you to Erika,
Jennifer, and Bill for being present when Chimpy was born
and helping with his development.

Copyright © 2010 by James LaCroce

ISBN #: 1456309676
 This
is
Chimpy.
Hey, you!
Welcome to my story.
I may look successful
now, but my life started
off a bit differently.
I don’t remember my birth family. I grew up on an island where
baby chimpanzees who have lost their families live.
As far back as I can remember, I was always different than the other chimps on the
island. I liked picking flowers. No one else cared about flowers.

I also enjoyed lounging by the stream and sipping cold drinks. I even put little umbrellas
in them to make them fancier. No one else did this either.
 Sissy! Freak!

The other chimps used to scream at me. They said that I acted
weird. Tears flowed from behind my sunglasses. After a while, I just closed my
eyes and pretended that I was far away.
 When the others had
banana fights, I gave
myself green banana
facials.

Thank
goodness
for my
friend,
Matthew
Chicken.
He never
made me
feel weird
at all.
At night I dreamed of travel-
ing to far off places. I
dreamed of flying into
space and visiting distant
planets. I loved to dream.
 Chimpy, I have a delicious
breakfast for you!

I was pretty lucky to have a few nice friends to feed and take care of me. Charlie was a very
friendly person. His voice always made me feel happy.
One morning, while enjoying my fruit basket, I heard voices coming from a nearby
hut. They were human voices. I decided to find out who the people were.
I picked a flower and popped my head in the window.
I spoke in my clearest Chimpazee voice. I said, “Good Morning, humans!”
They seemed happy to meet me. One of them guessed my name.

Good Morning,
little Chimpy.
I showed the red-haired man where
there was a field of flowers nearby.
I found out that he liked flowers, too.
They taught me how to
SCUBA dive.

Here you go, Chimpy.

Remember to be careful on your
first solo dive. Benji and I will be
watching.
Don’t scare him, Juan.
Just remember to go slow and
watch your oxygen level.
With the scuba tank, I could breathe underwater. I was happy to finally see the fish,
crabs, and plants up close.
It was amazing! I was glad to have friends like Juan and Benji.
I was so tired from my day that I curled up in Juan and Benji’s suitcase and fell asleep.
When they saw
this, Juan and
Benji asked
me to live
with them in
San Francisco.
Heck yes, I want to
go with you!
It turned out that Juan was an
animal doctor. He and Benji had
just gotten married and now they
were on a vacation to celebrate.
They were traveling around the
world.
A few days later, Benji and
Juan put on nice clothes and
took me to the Ape Adoption
Agency on the island.
I was happy to finally
have a family that
liked me the way that
I was. I was finally
going to travel and
see the world!
 When Ms. Michelle, from the
adoption agency, saw Benji
and Juan, she became very
angry.

She didn’t like that Benji and Juan loved each other.
She said she wouldn’t let a gay couple adopt me.
She called being gay— disgusting.

Ms. Michelle
GET OUT!
Benji was hurt by what Ms.
Michelle said.
He and Juan loved each
other and wanted to make
me a part of their family.
Why did it matter that he
and Juan were gay? I didn't
even know what “gay”
meant.
Juan and Benji tried to find a way to fix
things, but as hard as they tried, they still
weren’t able to adopt me. They were very
sad. There was nothing else to do, so they
left for Italy to finish their vacation.
Listen up, Chimpy. If you want to find
those guys, I can help you. That boat is
going to be our ticket out of here.
YEE-HA! Let’s go!
Matthew Chicken
dropped me in a big
wooden crate. He said
to hide there until it was
safe to come out.
A big hook lifted up the
crate. I could see through
two holes in the side of
the crate that I was high
up in the air.
I was excited. I was on my
way to find my family.
When the hook dropped the crate it made a loud THUD.

The crate landed in the cargo hold of the ship.

It was completely dark.

 I started to feel SCARED!

I couldn’t see anything at all.

I decided that I had to get out.

I took the hammer that I had hidden with me in the crate.

I started hitting the top of the crate, until finally….

SMASH!
I broke
out!
I was
free!
I threw down the hammer and set out to find Matthew Chicken. Little did I know
that he was in the hull next door with two tons of bananas. Meanwhile, pirates
lurked above us.
The plan had worked. Matthew Chicken and I celebrated by dancing with joy. Then, we
toasted our triumph with a grape juice and bananas. Little did we know that we had fallen
into a trap.

Well played Activate the

Cap’n. monkey cage.

You got it, Cap’n.

Arrrggghhh!
I was standing on a giant spring that pushed me through the floor and into a cage on
the deck above.

Oh, No! It’s a trap!

Hang in there. I’ll

find a way to get
you out!
Then the Captain, the one
they called, “Steve”
started describing some of
his recipes.

I was disgusted.
I was on a pirate ship. Worse than that, the pirates started singing,
“We’re pirates and we eat monkeys…. Chimps and apes, are so Taste-y!”
Captain Steve had written a book called Monkey Chow! I had to escape!
At that moment I felt the floor shake.
This crowbar should do
the trick.
See! I said I’d save
you.
I was ANGRY with Do you know that this boat is full of
Matthew Chicken. monkey-eating pirates? They tricked you
into hiding me in that crate! I’m sure
they’ll eat chicken, too, by the way.
Take it easy kid. Nobody is going
to eat us. We just have to
switch to Plan B.
Plan B
Maurice, bring me the chimp.
It’s time for the main ingredient
in my monkey stew.
He’s gone! It looks like they
pulled the old, “coconut-head,
banana-hand, monkey swap.
The captain
threatened to
eat us again, but
he was too late,
we were already
floating away.
We wouldn’t be
eaten that day!

I’ll eat you yet! Just you wait!

You both look so yummy and I’m so
hungry. ARRGGGHH!
We paddled away from the pirate ship as fast as we could and the waves carried
us further out to sea.
We swam for a long time.

It seemed like days.

Finally, we floated into
a city in the ocean.
Italian people call it
Venezia. In English,
it’s called Venice.
 I think it’s a Miracle
we weren’t eaten by a
It’s a miracle! shark!
I’ve always dreamed
of seeing Venice and
here we are.
Ehi! Siete due
bene? *

*Hey! Are you ok?

A man on a Gondola, found
us floating in the canal
and pulled us out of the
water.
Have you seen
these guys?
 Ho appena visto due ragazzi
che sembrano su un motoscafo.
Potete probabilmente li cattura
se si esegue.*

* I just saw two

guys who look
like that on a
speedboat. You
can probably
catch them if
you run.
I looked out onto the Grand Canal and I spotted two guys who looked like Juan
and Benj steering a boat. I decided that I might as well find out for sure.
I ran as fast as I could. And then….
 I
jumped!
Matthew Chicken
watched me land in
the boat with Juan
and Benji.
We were all so happy to see one another that we
danced with joy! Juan and Benji could not believe
that a chimpanzee and a chicken could travel so far
to find them.

The local news

hailed Matthew
a “rooster-fish”
and me a
“miracle
chimp”.
The local
Authorities
Conducted
physical exams
of both me and
Matthew le autorità locali
italiane

Chicken.

Matthew
Chicken
stood
proudly on
his legs.
They told
him that he
was very
smart
and in good
health.
The adoption agent decided that I
needed to gain a little weight, but was
healthy after the long trip.
He decided that we couldn’t have found
Juan and Benji by mere accident and
decided to allow them to adopt me.

domanda di adozione scimpanzè

Juan and Benji
filled out the
Chimpanzee
adoption Forms.
It was pretty
challenging in
Italian.
Congratulations, you are a
family. You must be so
happy.
At last Juan and
Benji were
allowed to adopt
me!
 We all flew back to San Francisco together.
It was my first time on a plane. Everything looked
so small from the window of a plane.
As we flew overhead, I saw San Fran-
cisco for the first time.
It was a busy city full of adventures.
I couldn’t wait to explore it.

Juan
and
Benji
lived in
a blue
house on
Castro
Street.
It was
my new
home.
People in San Francisco heard
about our story and threw a
party to welcome us home.
 Matthew Chicken
found his way to
San Francisco, too!

At last, I had
found a place
where I could feel
at home.
 Most importantly, I
found a family that
loves me. That makes
me the happiest chimp
in the world. There is
nothing strange about
that. Nothing at all.

The End.