"Please?"
Say no, Gerald told himself.
Say no, he told himself again.
"Okay," he mumbled.
Stella jumped up and let out a whoop.
Then she dashed to the ladder and
hurried down, leaving Gerald sitting
on the roof, wishing like anything he
had said no."
A new story from Barbara O'Connor is always highly anticipatory for me! She is adept at creating characters I have come to love, and her settings have character, as well. Meadville, South Carolina does not disappoint. Nor do the people who spend eight days one sleepy summer in pursuit of a one-legged pigeon named Sherman.
We meet Meadville first, and come to know just a little bit about Stella and Gerald. Their days are mostly the same. Then one morning, Stella climbs up to the roof of Gerald's garage and opens the shed door to get the cards out for their regular game. To her surprise, she is met by that one-legged pigeon and it intrigues her. It intrigues her enough that she comes up with a 'good idea'. That news makes Gerald uncomfortable:
"Gerald had a familiar feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Dread.
Whenever Stella got a good idea, something bad almost always happened.
A dent in the side of his father's car.
His grandmother's embroidered tablecloth left out in the rain.
A stripe of black paint that stayed on his forehead for a long time.
And one particularly good idea that eventually involved a fire truck and a crowbar."
Page 13...and already we know we are in for a rollicking adventure.
Turns out that Stella and Gerald are not the only ones on the lookout for the errant pigeon. Mr. Mineo, his caretaker, is missing him and each day away from the flock brings new worries for Sherman's safety. When the pigeon lands on Mutt's head, he tells his family the improbable and bolsters their sense that he is a liar. He wants to prove them wrong. Levi and his 'scabby kneed, germ-infested friends' bring annoyance with them to a new level. The brown dog who takes refuge in Amos and Ethel Roper's barn and causes untold consternation for Amos with his barking, wants a friend and hopes to have found just that in Sherman.
Other characters play a role and enhance the small town ambiance of Meadville and its slow, lazy summer days where nothing holds more importance than the return of a one-legged pigeon. As she has done in her other books, Barbara O'Connor offers up a story that is sure to charm and delight her many fans, and certainly win her new ones. If this is your first book from this talented author, please be sure it isn't your last!
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