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Spinelli, Jerry.
WRINGER
New York : HarperCollins, c1997.
IL 5-8  RL 5.5
ISBN 0060249145

(2 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

Palmer does not look forward to his tenth birthday because that’s when he becomes a wringer.  When he turned nine he was thrilled with his new nickname—Snots—and getting his first Treatment.  As Snots he was part of the gang with Beans, Mutto, and Henry.  Dorothy across the street suddenly became Fishface and an object to be tormented.  Then Nipper came into his life.  How do you hide a pigeon in a town that annually slaughters 5,000 pigeons in order to fund the city park?  How do you hide a pigeon from your father with his sharpshooter trophy from killing pigeons?  How do you avoid becoming a wringer when you turn 10 years old?  Palmer has a problem.  He’ll be ten soon.  (Mary Huebscher, Librarian, Holy Cross High School, San Antonio, TX 78228 <marwood45@hotmail.com>)

Booktalk #2

"He did not want to be a wringer. This was one of the first things he had learned about himself. He could not have said exactly when he learned it, but it was very early. And more than early, it was deep inside. In the stomach, like hunger." Palmer LaRue is not looking forward to the day he turns 10. When a boy turns 10 in his town they are allowed the opportunity to strangle wounded pigeons at his towns annual Pigeon Day. When Palmer adopts a pigeon as his pet he must hide it from his parents and most importantly his friends who would love nothing more than to wring it's neck. Will Palmer’s secret stay hidden? Will Palmer give into peer pressure and become a wringer? To find out read Jerry Spinelli’s, Newbery Honor Book, Wringer.
(Amanda Klunk, funky_girl_75@hotmail.com, college student)

SUBJECTS:     Courage -- Fiction.
                        Violence -- Fiction.
                        Pigeons -- Fiction.

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