Programs & Campaigns

Next of Kin - the Book

In 'Next of Kin', Fouts tells the dramatic story of his personal and professional odyssey from novice researcher to celebrity scientist to impassioned crusader for the rights of animals.

At the heart of this captivating book is Fouts's magical thirty-year friendship with Washoe, whom we watch grow from a mischievous baby chimp fresh out of the NASA space program into the matriarch of a clan of chimpanzees who fill these pages with tales of humor and heartbreak, pathos and love.

Living and conversing with these sensitive creatures has given Fouts a profound appreciation of how much we share with our closest biological relatives, and what they can teach us about ourselves. Fouts also describes the crisis of conscience he faced when he discovered that hundreds of chimpanzees were being subjected to perilous biomedical experimentation in laboratories across America.

At significant risk to his own career, he became an outspoken advocate for improved conditions for animals in research labs, and devoted himself to rescuing this lost generation of chimpanzees.

Next of Kin is a voyage of scientific discovery and interspecies communication unlike any that has come before. Fouts addresses the timeless questions that have always stirred our imaginations: What qualities of intellect and emotion do we share with other animals? How and when did language develop? What is our moral responsibility to our fellow primates? This stirring tale of friendship, courage, and compassion will change forever the way we view our biological-and spiritual-next of Kin.

Roger Fouts is professor of psychology at Central Washington University and co-director with his wife, Deborah Fouts, of the Chimpanzee and Human Communications Institute. His extraordinary accomplishments with Washoe and her chimpanzee family over the past three decades have generated international publicity in magazines and newspapers and on television. He is a frequent speaker on chimpanzee behavior and on behalf of improved conditions for captive chimpanzees in biomedical research.

— Next of Kin book jacket

New Pricing!

$30.00 for Gr. 2-5 (paper)
$24.95 for for Gr. 2-5 (printable cd-rom)
$30.00 for for Gr.6-9

Special Price!
Buy both Grades 2-5 and 6-9
for only $60!

Next of Kin Curriculum
> About NoK
> Grades 2-5
> Grades 6-9
> Grades 10-12 - coming soon!

> Enter Free Drawing

> About 'Next of Kin', the book

> Learn More About CHCI

> Teacher Comments
> Order Next of Kin curriculum
> Sample Lesson Plan
   :: Chimp or Human?

> Next of Kin Curriculum Unveiled
> Educating the Next Generation

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