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Nancy Keane's | Booktalks -- Quick and Simple | |
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Spinner, Stephanie.
ALEX THE PARROT : NO ORDINARY BIRD New York : Knopf, 2012 IL 3-6, RL 5.9 ISBN 0375868461 (2 booktalks) |
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Booktalk #1 “The bigger the brain, the smarter the creature.” At least that’s what scientists thought before they met an African Grey parrot who would change their thinking. Alex, short for Avian Learning Experiment, was raised by Irene Pepperberg. She bought Alex when he was just a year old. She believed that she could teach the bird to talk and perform mathematics. No one paid too much attention to this since most scientists believed that birds were not very smart. But Alex sure proved them wrong. Read about the incredible story of Alex and Irene. Booktalk #2 I enjoyed this book....being a non-fiction reader I was hooked at the title: “a true story.” Do parrots talk? Yes, we have that answer today, but there was a time when this was only an hypothesis until someone very curious discovered truth......that someone is Irene Pepperberg, an animal psychologist. Imagine working with an animal and discovering something amazing about that animal that no one else knows! Take a look at contrast of artsy, colorful, fun illustrations...you wouldn’t immediately think of this book as nonfiction at first sight, right?? Well, that’s what hooked me too....and the cover is such an intriguing contrast to the slow, tedious task of scientific research that lead to Irene Pepperberg’s discovery. This book is 48 pages, but there is another book, entitled Alex and Me, and it is 232 pages.....so that’s an indication of how extensive the research process can be. The artwork is also a tribute to the personality of the bird! After reading this book, you won’t think of the term ‘bird brain’ the same way ever again! (South Carolina Children's Book Award nominee, 2015 Prepared by: Rose Davis. Arden Elementary School, rosdavis@richlandone.org) |
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