Posts Tagged ‘ Mr. Ganguly ’

To celebrate publication day, another drawing from Joanna Levine at Holt: And to think I didn’t realize Mr. Ganguly could read! I should have made that a plot element. I could have done so. Irene Pepperberg, who demonstrated a lot about parrot intelligence to skeptical human beings, actually did teach her African gray to read several letter combinations phonetically. How we humans underestimate–and abuse–these remarkable birds is explored in journalist Mira Tweti’s excellent book, Of Parrots and People: …Read More

P for publication, that is. Tomorrow, Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes gets released. Makes you think: while the books have been sitting in boxes in warehouses, have they gotten restless? Are they like prisoners waiting to get out of jail? Zoo animals trying to escape from their cages? Or are they like pet birds that seem tame enough until someone leaves a door open—and then, out they fly? A few months ago, my sister Lee sent me this Victorian …Read More

Parrots at dusk in Northern India To keep Mr. Ganguly, the parrot in Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes, in good health, I’ve felt very lucky to be able to consult Dr. Cinthia Fulton, who works at the VCA Animal Medical Center in Portsmouth, NH. Cindy is one of those life-long animal lovers who knew from a tender age that she wanted to be a vet, but she’s also a Renaissance woman with talents and interests from classical piano to …Read More