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Wonderful read about a woman driven by her belief that nonhuman species can communicate with man. The author grew up quite alone except for a bird to which she told her deepest secrets. Her father traveled a good deal and her mother was angry because she needed to stay home with a child. And, yes, as a child Irene Pepperberg recognized the anger was because of her.

As she grew up she decided that science, chemistry in particular, would be her major. Graduating with a PhD she realized that she did not want to do research in chemistry but with birds. Reading everything she could find about the topic she decided that she could work with grey parrots and acquired one of her own which she named Alex. Finding funding and laboratory space was difficult because she had no track record in this area nor was it an accepted area of scientific research. But Pepperberg was determined and through years of grant writing, training and teaching Alex, and living often from hand to mouth she gradually gained prestige for her work.

Alex was an unusual bird, probably a genius of his kind as he developed communication far beyond what anyone else had accomplished with a nonhuman species. He became a celebrity on the television screens and in newspapers. He learned numbers, colors, shapes and how to communicate in short phrases with his human handlers. The story is delightful and broked scientific ground as the public learned what is possible with a nonhuman species. I loved this read.