Alex & Me: An African Grey Parrot

Book Review Imagine a world where you can talk to an animal, and that animal will then talk back to you. That world is real, and the animal is an African Grey Parrot. Irene Pepperberg wrote a memoir called, Alex & Me. This book is about Pepperberg’s experiences and hardships studying birds, in particular a bird’s ability to talk and understand words, and her growing relationship with one bird. This bird was named Alex, and he was an African Grey who died at a young age of thirty-one years old. What helps make the book so good is the great balance between serious facts, and funny moments, which makes the book both educational and fun to read. I would recommend this to anyone who loves animals, especially birds. Alex and me has lots of educational bits, that help the reader understand the hardship that Pepperberg went through as well as facts about the study of birds and how much they really …show more content…
One example of this is when Alex was correcting the other birds. “Or he’d (Alex) admonish them, “You’re wrong,” when as too often was the case, they were” (Pepperberg 107). This sets up a pretty comical scene that will make many readers laugh. Another funny moment is when Alex was throwing away food that he didn’t want. “A simple example: if Alex said “Want grape” and you gave him a banana, he’d spit it right back at you and repeat insistently, “Want grape.” He wouldn’t stop until you gave him a grape” (Pepperberg 107). This is also a comical scene, but also helps show how smart Alex was. This is rather funny because Alex is throwing food everywhere and probably making a big mess whilst throwing a big fit. He also knew exactly what both a banana and a grape was, which helps show how smart he really was. There are lots of other examples of Alex being silly scattered throughout the book. Alex and Me helps show how smart birds are, especially Alex, but it also manages to be very funny between all of the