Bird Brain

Arden has always wanted a pet. Any pet, though particularly a cute intelligent dog to rival the Labradoodle belonging to that nasty bully Marni. Not, however, a bird, and especially not a parrot since the only parrot she knows is the one at the pet store who growls at everyone and bites any finger that gets too close. However when her favourite uncle is going on sabbatical for six months and asks her to take care of his research animal/pet, an African Grey parrot named Ludwing, what can she say? (Especially as her mother has already said “yes”.)

It turns out, of course that Ludwing is not at all like the pet-store parrot, and, when Arden talks calmly to him, changes his water, feeds him his special pellets with a tablespoon of vitamins of some sort mixed in, and eats her breakfast beside his cage, she finds she can have real conversations with him. He recognizes colours. When Arden used the math test on which she got one question wrong to line the bottom of his cage, Ludwing supplied the answer. He seems to be able to read the ads on the supermarket flyers. What is going on?

Well, besides Ludwing in Arden's life, there is Marni, who, having found a susceptible victim, bullies Arden unmercifully, especially when Brian, her boyfriend, expresses admiration for Arden's "nerd"-like behaviour on the eve of tryouts for the Science Super Bowl team. Marni corners Arden in the washroom the next day and intimidates her into flubbing the tryouts and then, to everyone's astonishment, manages to get onto the team herself. Marni has never shown any interest in science before, but managed to get four out of five of her test questions correct. How?!

This is where the two threads of the story come together. Arden brings Ludwig to school one morning to illustrate her five-minute show-and-tell speech, and Ludwig, left alone on a shelf in the classroom, overhears a damning pre-school conversation between Marni and her best friend, which he then contributes to Arden's speech, and the fat is in the fire. Marni's having stolen the questions for the Science Bowl competition and her having bullied Arden all come out; there are apologies in the principal's office, fresh tryouts for the team, and all is well.

Bird Brain is a story about a bird with a Brain, with a capital B! No odious comparisons at all. The Fact vs Fiction chapter at the end of the book does point out that Arden's mistake of trebling the "vitamins" that Ludwig gets each day would not have actually made him smarter, but the same section also gives web links to real research that shows just how smart African Grey parrots can be. Bird Brain is also a story of bullying and being bullied. Thankfully, partially due to the confidence Arden has achieved through her work with Ludwig, and partially through having done what everyone is counseled to do when being bullied, namely go to a grown-up, Arden manages to face up to her aggressor even before the revelations of Marni's cheating have come to light. It is perhaps a little too convenient that it didn't take more than a change of attitude on Arden's part, not letting Marni "get to her", to make her back off, but experience has shown this frequently to be the case.

It's a long time since I was a young teen, but I don't really see how Marni's steely glares and snide comments could manage to reduce Arden to such a quivering jelly. Also, it is perhaps a bit pat with its solution to the problem. Not everything can be solved by a change of attitude! But certainly being truly successful at something, such as training a pet or studying his limitations (or in Ludwig's case, his lack of same!), bolsters one's ego in other areas of life. But this is a quibble. I really liked this book. Arden is a nerdish heroine, keen on science and not afraid of showing that she is brighter than most of her classmates, but she is still a sympathetic character that readers can relate to without difficulty.