Common Sense Note
Readers will be hooked from the beginning to the story's suspenseful climax. This moral dilemma of a young boy trying to do what he feels is right despite peer pressure is dealt with quite deftly.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Tara L. Rivera
Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, WRINGER is a mesmerizing morality tale about a gruesome town-unifying event and a boy who cannot make sense of it. Normally a birthday would be a joyous occasion for a ten-year-old, but instead Palmer faces it with gut-wrenching anguish. The dread is pervasive from the first page, the casual cruelty of almost everyone around him--adult and child--is frightening, and the rush of events sweeps the reader along just as it does Palmer.
Palmer struggles for awhile to try to fit in, but the wild pigeon changes all that. He makes pathetic attempts to rid himself of this bird, but soon gives him a name (Nipper) and a home. Though the prevailing mood is one of almost unbearable suspense and foreboding, Spinelli skillfully blends in bits of comic relief, like Palmer anxiously pacing back and forth as Nipper mimics and struts behind. This has the effect of making Nipper so charming, in a pigeon sort of way, that the reader is as frightened for him as Palmer is. Even the parallel of Palmer's secret friendship with Dorothy creates a sense of anguish and insecurity.
Readers may want to try Spinelli's Newbery Medal-winning Maniac Magee or Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War, which addresses the issues of conformity and peer pressure in a similarly disturbing fashion.
From the Book:
It seems as if the bird is about to speak, but it does not. Only the voices speak: "Wring it! Wring it! Wring it!" He cannot. He cannot wring it, nor can he let go. He wants to let go, desperately, but his fingers are stone. And the voices chant "Wring it! Wring it!" and the orange eye stares.
Plot Summary:
Most boys can't wait for their tenth birthday--Palmer is dreading his. In Palmer's town, ten-year-old boys become wringers, who break the necks of wounded pigeons at the town's annual Pigeon Day shoot. Spinelli's taut, gripping tale of a good-hearted boy in a violent town gives the fear of growing up a whole new meaning.
For Palmer, there are perks to being ten: acceptance by neighborhood bullies Beans, Mutto, and Henry, getting a nickname (Snots!), and showing off his bruise from the Treatment (one punch in the arm for every year of his life). But there is one perk Palmer dreads: becoming a wringer. His small town hosts the annual Pigeon Day shoot, where eager ten-year-old boys wring the necks of wounded birds. Palmer secretly finds the entire ritual repellent.
To make matters worse, like a guilty conscience a stray pigeon comes tapping at his window one day, takes up residence in his closet, and won't leave. In a town that murders pigeons, how can he keep it secret ... and safe? Palmer asks his friend, Dorothy, for help, but she unknowingly sets the bird free in a place where it is captured, thus directing the tale to its unexpected climax.
Related Books:
Also by Jerry Spinelli
Maniac Magee
The Library Card
Stargirl
Loser
Milkweed
Books With Similar Themes
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
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ViolenceDescriptions of how to wring the necks of pigeons, shooting birds as they're released from a cage, and wounded birds falling out of the sky, flopping aimlessly about on the ground. |
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Social BehaviorPalmer and his friends engage in a wide variety of thuggish behavior toward both children and adults, including tormenting a second-grade girl, breaking into Palmer's house, and nailing a dead muskrat to a neighbor's door. The gang threatens to kill Palmer's pigeon and suggests violent acts toward him. Young boys participate in a wringer training session where they pretend to strangle a bird by twisting a sock. |
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