Eric Hanson – illustratör

Charlie Parker is an African Gray Parrot. He entered the life of Debby and Michael Smith three decades ago when, at the insistence of their young son, Eli, they brought him home from a downtown Manhattan bird shop. He has been an integral, and voluble, member of the family ever since.Charlie’s vocabulary is astonishingly diverse and colorful. He can be demanding, squawking imperiously “Clean my cage” or “Want some water.” He can be brutally direct, warning an aggressive business associate who had been yelling at Debby “I’m going to kick your ass, you sonofabitch.” He can be mischievous, making meowing noises to a neighbor’s confused dog in the elevator.Charlie is a survivor. He ended up recovering on an IV after the collapse of the World Trade Center filled the Smiths’ apartment with toxic dust. He is often an entertainer, with a songbook that extends across “Home on the Range” to “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” And most of the time he is affectionate, often hanging upside down against the side of his cage and demanding to be tickled.In encountering Charlie’s tales in this concise and charming book, we come to realize that parrots are intelligent and loving creatures, to an extent that, as the renowned avian scientist Professor Irene Pepperberg points out in her introduction, they cannot meaningfully be owned by humans but only enjoyed as companions.

Charlie Parker is an African Grey Parrot. He entered the life of the Smith family three decades ago when they first encountered him in a downtown Manhattan bird shop and found him so irresistible, they had to bring him home.Charlie is many things in the Smith family, articulating them all in an astonishingly diverse and colorful vocabulary. He can be demanding, squawking imperiously Clean my cage or Want some water. He can be very direct, warning an aggressive business associate who had been yelling at Debby I m going to kick your ass, you sonofabitch He can be mischievous, making meowing noises to a neighbor s confused dog in the elevator. He is a survivor, who ended up recovering on an IV after the collapse of the World Trade Center filled the Smiths neighboring apartment with toxic dust. He is often the entertainer, with a songbook that extends across the opening bars of Home on the Range and The Yellow Rose of Texas. Most of the time he is affectionate, as when he hangs upside down against the side of the cage and asks for his tummy to be tickled.In hearing Charlie s tales in this charming book, we come to realize that parrots are intelligent, sociable and loving creatures, to an extent that, as the renowned avian scientist Professor Irene Pepperberg insists in her introduction, they cannot meaningfully be owned by humans but should rather be enjoyed as companions.

A parable about a hapless dad whose life changes when he discovers the wonders of CBD, written in the style of the classic children''s book CDB! (1968). Both a parodic children''s book and a "puzzle book," it will delight CBD users, irreverent parents, and anyone curious about or appalled by wellness.CBD: you can''t escape the cannabis derivative. Cannabidiol is an omnipresent cureall that has gone from being "voguish" to "a mainstream panacea," as the New York Times observed ("Why Is CBD Everywhere?" Oct. 27, 2018). And it''s a particular favorite of the stroller-pushing crowd endemic to chic-er areas of New York, the Bay Area and other similar urban environs.Comedic and light-hearted, Amy Sohn''s CBD! pokes fun at the national obsession with CBD as well as the legalization of marijuana in many states in America. Though not appropriate for kids (except for really smart and transgressive ones ones), this parody will appeal particularly to parents who have read William Steig''s beloved classic CDB! to their kids, or to those Gen X-ers and Boomers who remember it from their own childhood or parenthood.Praise for Amy Sohn:"A little-known event that took place around the time that Richard M. Nixon was resigning as President was the birth of Amy Sohn. . . . Ms. Sohn has emerged as a representative of her generation…" —The New York Times