Fort Morgan Public Library

This story of Alex, a famous African Grey parrot, documents his thirty-year relationship with his trainer and the ways in which his life has changed scientific understanding about language and thought.

When her teacher assigns a report about animals and all the popular animals get snatched up, Ellie McDoodle is stumped for a topic. Then a neighbor asks Ellie to pet-sit her African gray parrot and it seems her problem is solved. But when the parrot flies the coop-literally-Ellie has an even bigger problem. With help from a librarian, a zookeeper, and Ellie's own pet-obsessed family, the bird comes home-but will Ellie finish her report on time?

Ellie pet-sits for her neighbor's African grey parrot Alix, about whom she's writing a report, while her family argues over whether to get a cat or a dog, and her little brother accidentally lets Alix out of his cage, all of which is chronicled in Ellie's ever-present sketchbook.

Alastair the African grey parrot is adopted by elderly dance-enthusiast and pie-baker Albertina Plopky and his sister, Aggie, by twelve-year-old Fritz, spoiling his plans to away fly with Aggie. Told in Alastair, Albertina, and Fritz's voices.