Charlie Parker is an African Gray Parrot. He entered the life of Debby
and Michael Smith three decades ago when, at the insistence of their
young son, Eli, they brought him home from a downtown Manhattan bird
shop. He has been an integral, and voluble, member of the family ever
since.
Charlie's vocabulary is astonishingly diverse and colorful. He can be
demanding, squawking imperiously "Clean my cage" or "Want some water."
He can be brutally direct, warning an aggressive business associate who
had been yelling at Debby "I'm going to kick your ass, you sonofabitch."
He can be mischievous, making meowing noises to a neighbor's confused
dog in the elevator.
Charlie is a survivor. He ended up recovering on an IV after the
collapse of the World Trade Center filled the Smiths' apartment with
toxic dust. He is often an entertainer, with a songbook that extends
across "Home on the Range" to "The Yellow Rose of Texas." And most of
the time he is affectionate, often hanging upside down against the side
of his cage and demanding to be tickled.
In encountering Charlie's tales in this concise and charming book, we
come to realize that parrots are intelligent and loving creatures, to an
extent that, as the renowned avian scientist Professor Irene Pepperberg
points out in her introduction, they cannot meaningfully be owned by
humans but only enjoyed as companions.
