Wringer
Jerry Spinelli
 Palmer LaRue grew up in a town called Waymer with a yearly tradition of letting pigeons out of a crate and shooting them with shotguns in order to raise money for the city's playground. Ten-year-old boys learn how to pick up the wounded birds that have not yet died and then wring their necks to "put them out of their misery." Palmer refuses to take part in such a horrific ceremony. When pressured by his peers, Henry, Mutto, and Beans, Palmer convinces them that he is one of them so that he will be considered cool by his classmates. Palmer keeps a pigeon named Nipper as a pet while keeping the pigeon's existence a secret. The day of the pigeon shooting comes and Palmer is nervous because he let his friend Dorothy release Nipper. It is then revealed that Nipper had been released near the railroad tracks, where people capture the pigeons and crate them for the shooting. The pigeons are released and Nipper is wounded. One of Palmer's "friends" happens to be at the shooting, and he brings the pigeon back onto the field to be killed by the sharpshooter. Palmer carries Nipper off the field in the midst of gunfire. Palmer realizes how he might have changed this tradition when he hears a kid from the audience tell his father that he wants a pigeon for a pet.