High school student Yozhik attends a science lyceum and ends up doing a summer internship at the Institute of Bioengineering and Gene Biology, where the unique properties of shapeshifting animals are studied for the benefit of humanity. Yozhik and his friends accidentally discover that one of these test subjects—a bear named Samson—is sentient. Samson is the institute's most valuable specimen. He was brought from distant Vancouver, where a local laboratory had been conducting research on teaching shapeshifters to speak. Living in captivity, all the animals the kids study are suffering, but freeing them is almost impossible: the subjects are under round-the-clock surveillance, and the institute uses a secure access system. Yozhik has to face a serious question: what is more important—scientific progress or empathy for a living creature?
Author: Masha Sandler
Illustrations: Alexander Utkin
Pages: 192 (offset). Hardcover
Dimensions: 215x145x17 mm
