We see two woman we are most likely familiar with, Goodall and Fossey but we may never have heard of Galdikas. They had another connection as well with Louis Leaky who “found” them and helped them achieve their specific goals. Jim Ottaviani has created an introduction to three different women who had little in common but had an interestingly similar goal: to work with primates. Therefore, on the top of my five-book-stack was Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas. Recently I have started to realize that the right non-fiction book can be delightful and graphic novels are so much fun anyways why not give it a try? And worse case was I did not like it. When I was returning two books to the library, I also browsed the shelves and this book jumped out at me. The fact it is a graphic novel allows it to be presented in an even more story-like fashion and can help with literally illustrating plot points. And while it is non-fiction, it is what I have started to call a non-fiction novel which allows stories to have the best of the novel-flow and the facts of non-fiction. It was non-fiction (which I have had a love-hate relationship with over the years) and judging by the cover, young and maybe a little preachy due to the subject.

I had no real interest in it at the time. I had seen the book Primates since it came out in 2013 (hardcover) and 2015 (paper).

Primates by Jim Ottaviani