"Chiku Flynn wasn't raised to be human. She was born in the rainforest
of the Congo to two parents studying the local chimpanzees. For the
first eleven years of her life, Chiku is more chimp than human. She
nests with the chimpanzees at night, grooms with them, and thinks
nothing of sticking a twig into the ground and slurping up an ant or
termite lunch. Everything changes when her mother is killed by a
crocodile. Chiku is sent back to the States by her father to grow into
a maladjusted teenager. She can't cope with middle school and high
school. She's diagnosed with defiance disorder, mood disorder,
depression, hyperactivity, and she's medicated for the lot. Then, when
she's sixteen, her beloved father disappears and Chiku must return to
the jungle to find her true self. In Swahili her name means
chatterbox, but to the chimpanzees of the Maiku National Park with
whom she can communicate using sign language, she is known simply as
Talk Talk. Assassins await. Murder. Civil War and desperate refugees.
Caught in the middle are Chiku's real family, her chimpanzees.
Scallion. Scopes. Pan. Dora. Filled with self-doubts, at war with her
older half sister, Chiku will face down anyone who threatens the ones
she loves."