Meet Guest Blogger Caroline Zhang and Her Parakeets Budgie and Puff

Author Caroline Zhang at home in Palo Alto. 

Caroline Zhang is in the process of writing a novel about her two pet parakeets Budgie and Puff. Her working title is: Adventures of Budgie and Puff.

I met nine-year-old Caroline, who attends Palo Verde Elementary School in Palo Alto, when I became her English tutor last fall.  At some point she will start her own blog with some help and supervision from her Mom.  But for now, I offered her a guest spot on my own blog. Here Caroline writes about the inspiration behind her upcoming book.  She wrote and organized this essay on her own. I checked the spelling and grammar and took the author photo on my i-phone. Caroline's Mom photographed the parakeets.
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Ever since I got my parakeets, everything is brighter.  My parakeets are named Budgie and Puff.  The two birds are great friends to me and to each other.  They are fun to be with and very unique.  I have also observed them and I found some cool features that make up their personalities.

Budgie, a blue and white bird, is very adventurous and daring.  When I first got Budgie, I would use millet to lure Budgie to eat from my hand.  Budgie would cautiously step forward  and peck at the millet, even though she was still scared of me.  Budgie loves millet and loves to eat. You can lure Budgie with food all the time!  Surprisingly, Budgie is not fat at all.  I think that's because the millet is healthy and not a junk food.  Sometimes, while Budgie eats, she allows me to pet her.  

Puff, instead, eyed me as if I were a cat, ready to pounce on her.  Even now, Puff never lets me pet her, and she is sometimes even shy to come eat from my hand.  I think Puff really thinks things through, instead of charging at things blindly the way Budgie does.  Puff is also very acrobatic, she can climb the bars of the cage to get anywhere. On the other hand, Budgie is rather clumsy.  She often falls and lands awkwardly and she never climbs the cage bars, unless to get millet.

Budgie and Puff happily eating birdseed.

Budgie is also very determined.  Once I left a sprig of millet on the top of the cage, and Budgie climbed upside down to reach the millet and eat it.          

When I play the piano, Budgie and Puff will chirp along.  Budgie will chirp loudly and clearly, while Puff will chirp quietly, in an accompaniment to Budgie's singing.

One day, I realized that Budgie and Puff could be the perfect characters in an adventure story, because Budgie and Puff  show teamwork, which can be the key thing this adventure!  Overall, they do seem to help each other, bringing over some millet. Sometimes it looks like they are giving each other advice.  With the teamwork and different personalities, they make a great pair!



I noticed that Budgie could be the "brawn" and Puff could be the brain in a crazy adventure. That's how my novel, Adventures of Budgie and Puff came to be.  

If you are interested in Budgie and Puff, the book will come out in 2016! 
Enjoy!

Still eating...

About the Author

Caroline Zhang was born in California and she is now nine

years old. Caroline enjoys writing and she has a love for nature.

Caroline believes that nature is very important and that it should stay the way it is. We need to protect nature and animals. Speaking of animals, Caroline currently lives with her beloved parakeets, Budgie and Puff.