This book is a life story Alex and your owner Irene, about the difficulties they went through in all the years they were together and about how difficult it was for their research on the language and intelligence of the African gray parrot to has all the credibility it deserved. In the decade of 70's/80's the  branch of science was one that had a strictly male environment and a woman holding such a position and passing on full credibility in her research was very difficult.

Even though Alex had a brain size of a walnut, he always showed a lot of intelligence, he could speak, distinguish colors, shapes, relate whether it was bigger or smaller in relation to another object and could understand social relationships language, he understood when he was wrong, he got angry and knew how to show it verbally.

Alex had a very stong personality and managd to show it very well, purposefully answering questions wrongly when he was tired or not to take the same tests anymore... All these actions are fabulous,e even more so for a being so small and with a brain size of a walnut.

Despite the biography being centered on Alex, there is also a biography of the author and owner, Irene Pepperberg. In this biography, although more technical terms in the field of science, it's possible to understand everything very clearly and when reading her words it becomes impossible not to get emotional, because she manages to convey all her feelings to the readers.

Note:

I was very moved reading this book because I had a rooster, Piu, he lived for 8 years (2014-2022). I got it from a high school. My rooster, Piu, was raised since he was a chick and even though he didn't know how to communicate verbally with words, he understood things very well, he knew how to socialize, he was affectionate, he showed when he was sad, happy, irritated, wanting attention... Alex reminded me a lot my pet and reading about it's history, evolution and relationship with it's owner warmed my heart. I hope that people notice every day that animals are more like humans than we think, regardless of the size of their brain and that they can do extraordinary things in addition to making our journey in the world much lighter and happier.