about the book
Zeno is “bootiful and briyant.” His “servant” tells him so every day. Zeno can mimic 63 sounds and say 127 words. Pretty amazing for an African grey parrot caught as a fledgling in the jungle. For days now, his caretaker has been lying on the floor and not feeding Zeno. Even mimicking an alarm clock and ripping up the man’s precious papers is not waking him.
Dr. Agard, Zeno’s owner, is dead. His body is not discovered until a concerned assistant comes to check on the absent professor. As the paramedics take Dr. Agard away, Zeno screeches “Mine,” flies out the door, and perches in a tree. He has never before been outside or on his own. His biggest challenge right now is finding something to eat, and what he wants is his favorite, a banana nut muffin. Unfortunately, the other birds don’t understand a word he says.
Meanwhile, in another part of Brooklyn, eleven-year-old Alya has been battling leukemia for a long time. She is tired of the hospitals, treatments, and pain. Facing more chemo and its debilitating side effects, she mourns the lack of self-control in her life, the loss of her friends, and how her overly protective family all treat her differently. She is so sick she has forgotten how to try and has given up all hope.
A fragrant banana nut muffin on her bedside table near a window attracts the parrot. As it flutters close, Alya is amazed. The bird seems to understand what she says! Zeno asks her for the muffin, but Alya is too weak to open the window farther. Over and over again, he encourages her to “Try!” To Alya, it seems that the mysterious bird is reminding her that she has to try to get better. Just looking at him gives her strength.
Just as quickly as he flies into Alya’s life, Zeno flies off. Fate—and a banana nut muffin—brought them together and that momentary encounter affects both their futures. Will they each have the courage to face the storms along their individual journeys and find hope?
about the author
Jane Kelley grew up in Wisconsin in a home right next to a forest. She was a somewhat grumpy and whiney kid, and her mother thought it was a good place for Jane to go and cry. Just the opposite, Jane always found the woods to be a peaceful place where she could reconnect with the world. It’s no wonder Jane’s very first novel, Nature Girl, was about a child who gets lost in the woods.
Jane’s mother also taught her to love books, and her grandmother, Katherine Carson, was a novelist who wrote in the 1940s. Jane believed she wasn’t good enough to be a writer, but she kept on writing, mainly because she enjoyed all parts of the lonely process: the imagining, the planning, creating each character, solving plot problems, and exchanging ideas with fellow writers. She started by writing what she knew about—nature—and created educational books for elementary students. Now a full-fledged author, she claims she learns a lot, researching both her fiction and non-fiction books.
Jane lives in Brooklyn, New York, in the neighborhood where Zeno the African gray parrot flew to Alya’s window in The Desperate Adventures of Zeno and Alya. Jane’s husband and daughter are her first readers and are excellent critics for everything she writes. Her cat, Blackberry, could be a little more helpful.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: Cynsations
Author interview: Barbara’s Meanderings
Also by Jane Kelley:
The Book of Dares for Lost Friends. Feiwel and Friends. July 2015.
The Girl Behind the Glass. Random House Books for Young Readers. 2011.
Nature Girl. Random House Books for Young Readers. 2010.
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