The main character in this book is Palmer, and he is a 9-year old child. Some minor characters are Beans (the leader of the group of boys, and is rude, dirty, and misbehaved), Mutto (a member of the group of boys who is also rude, dirty, and misbehaved, but is not the leader), Henry (the nicest kid in the group besides Palmer, and doesn’t agree personally with some of the group’s doings), Palmer’s parents, Nipper (a pigeon), Dorothy (a nice girl that lives across the street from Palmer). The story takes place in the late 1900s in a rural community where Pigeon Day takes place.
The problem in the story is that Palmer doesn’t want to become a wringer. A wringer is a person who wrings pigeons’ necks if they aren’t already dead on Pigeon Day where pigeons are shot at for sport. The solution is that Palmer just doesn’t wring them. This may seem like all the problems are solved but as he solves one problem he opens up a few more.
In the first part of the plot it is Palmer’s 9th birthday. Beans, Mutto, and Henry are all there. Then he gets “The Treatment” which is where you get punched in the arm once for each year on your birthday. He has a flashback to when he was at Pigeon Day watching a pigeon in fascination, but then its neck is wrung by a wringer. He will have to become a wringer when he is 10. He has another flashback to another Pigeon Day when Beans was running around trying to catch a pigeon to wring when he was only 5.
Then it is time for Pigeon Day. Beans and Mutto go with Palmer to Pigeon Grounds where the shooting takes place. Then Palmer escapes and runs home and claims that he is ill. He is visited by a pigeon in a blizzard a few months later. He feeds the pigeon and then the pigeon leaves when he goes to school. Then he lets the pigeon into his room because it returned. He enjoys having the pigeon. The pigeon keeps coming back, Palmer keeps feeding him, and Palmer keeps letting him into his room. Palmer names the pigeon Nipper. Then he learns some more about pigeons. He doesn’t want anybody to find out about Nipper.
After that in the plot Palmer gets his mother to not go into his room. He does the same with his friends. Then his friends nail a dead muskrat to Dorothy’s door. They laugh when her mother comes and screams. Next Nipper is spotted by Palmer’s friends. They begin harassing Dorothy by blocking her way on the sidewalk when she walks home. However, it gets more and more intense and Dorothy finally asks Palmer “Why are you doing this to me?” He is haunted by her words until he finally tells her about having a pet pigeon. He becomes best friends with Dorothy.
Eventually Palmer’s other friends find out about Nipper by piecing together pieces. He starts acting strange so that he will get detentions after school. This will prevent him from having to deal with his friends questions about Nipper when he flies over them. He then goes to “wringer school” with his friends. He plans how to not become a wringer. It is finally his 10th birthday, but he refuses the treatment and basically tells his friends that he isn’t going to become a wringer. They don’t like that and come after him.
They have uncovered his secrets, and Palmer is fully aware of that. He relocates Nipper with Dorothy, but when they get back from their trip Nipper is sitting in Palmer’s room, having already flown back. After that Palmer’s family admits that they know about Nipper. They also tell him that they are less interested in the pigeon shooting. Palmer gives Nipper to Dorothy to go and release on her family’s vacation.
However, Palmer asks Dorothy where she released Nipper, and she says that she didn’t release it where they planned. She ended up releasing it where the pigeons for Pigeon Day are collected. Palmer wasn’t going to Pigeon Day, but he will have to in order to allow Nipper to live through the shooting. Nipper is shot at, but is missed and then flies high up. Then Nipper returns to Palmer’s head. He is attacked by Beans, who wants the pigeon dead.
I rated this book 5 star. I loved it. It takes 3-5 hours to read depending on your speed and purpose. It could also take a lot longer than that. It is realistic fiction, and would make a great literature circle book for 5-7th grade students.
Now I will spoil the story. Don’t read the spoiler if you don’t want to know what happens in the end of the book. Here it is:
Nipper and Palmer live.
