Wringer [Paperback]

Jerry Spinelli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2003

Palmer LaRue is running out of birthdays. For as long as he can remember, he's dreaded the day he turns ten, the day he's supposed to become a wringer. In Palmer's hometown of Waymer, a boy's tenth birthday is the biggest event of his life. It marks the day that he is ready to take his place as a wringer at the annual family fest, Pigeon Day. It's an honour and a tradition. But even though he would rather stay nine for the rest of his life than become a wringer, Palmer can't stop himself from getting older. Then an unwanted visitor arrives on his windowsill, and Palmer knows that it is a sign. Somehow, he must find a way to break tradition. He must learn how to stop being afraid, and stand up for what he believes in.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Newbery Medal-winning author Jerry Spinelli tells a story of peer pressure so foul, so horrifying, that Wringer should be shelved along with Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War. Nine-year-old Palmer dreads his upcoming 10th birthday. In his town, when boys are 10 years old they become "wringers," the boys who wring the necks of wounded pigeons at the annual Pigeon Day shoot. Palmer is sickened by the whole event. To make matters worse, his new buddies--Beans, Mutto, and Henry--have just discovered that Palmer has been hiding a pet pigeon in his room. What will Palmer do? Will he become a wringer to save face, or will he follow his heart? Wringer will appeal to preteens and younger teens who love to read suspenseful books on their own, but it would also be a good story to read aloud to spark discussion about the perils and nuances of peer pressure. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Palmer dreads his 10th birthday, when he will become a "wringer," trained to wring the necks of pigeons gunned down in an annual shooting contest. The thought of killing the birds sickens him, as does the bullying behavior of his three buddies. When Palmer makes a pet of a stray pigeon, he struggles to find the courage needed to confront his peers and act according to his conscience. A moral drama sure to engage young readers and promote classroom discussion. A Newbery Honor selection.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins Childs (March 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007156014
• ISBN-13: 978-0007156016
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (281 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Growing up, Jerry Spinelli was really serious about baseball. He played for the Green Sox Little League team in his hometown of Norristown, Pennsylvania, and dreamed of one day playing for the major leagues, preferably as shortstop for the New York Yankees.

One night during high school, Spinelli watched the football team win an exciting game against one of the best teams in the country. While everyone else rode about town tooting horns in celebration, Spinelli went home and wrote "Goal to Go," a poem about the game's defining moment, a goal-line stand. His father submitted the poem to the Norristown Times-Herald and it was featured in the middle of the sports page a few days later. He then traded in his baseball bat for a pencil, because he knew that he wanted to become a writer.

After graduating from Gettysburg College with an English degree, Spinelli worked full time as a magazine editor. Every day on his lunch hour, he would close his office door and craft novels on yellow magazine copy paper. He wrote four adult novels in 12 years of lunchtime writing, but none of these were accepted for publication. When he submitted a fifth novel about a 13-year-old boy, adult publishers once again rejected his work, but children's publishers embraced it. Spinelli feels that he accidentally became an author of children's books.

Spinelli's hilarious books entertain both children and young adults. Readers see his life in his autobiography Knots in My Yo-Yo String, as well as in his fiction. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved Penn Relays of his home state of Pennsylvania in a book, while Maniac Magee is set in a fictional town based on his own hometown.

When asked if he does research for his writing, Spinelli says: "The answer is yes and no. No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material. Yes, in the sense that the first 15 years of my life turned out to be one big research project. I thought I was simply growing up in Norristown, Pennsylvania; looking back now I can see that I was also gathering material that would one day find its way into my books."

On inspiration, the author says: "Ideas come from ordinary, everyday life. And from imagination. And from feelings. And from memories. Memories of dust in my sneakers and humming whitewalls down a hill called Monkey."

Spinelli lives with his wife and fellow writer, Eileen, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. While they write in separate rooms of the house, the couple edits and celebrates one another's work. Their six children have given Jerry Spinelli a plethora of clever material for his writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful coming-of-age story, November 5, 2001

By 

Michael J. Mazza - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wringer (Trophy Newbery) (Paperback)

Jerry Spinelli's "Wringer" is one of a very special class of books: a novel that is marketed to younger readers, but which also has much to offer adults. This is a powerful and hauntingly beautiful book.

"Wringer" takes place in the rural town of Waymer, a community known for a yearly event: Pigeon Day, during which sharpshooters fire at pigeons as they are released from cages. Those unfortunate birds which fall to the ground wounded, but not killed, have their necks wrung by boys known as "wringers." Traditionally, a Waymer boy becomes a wringer at age ten.

The novel follows the story of a Waymer boy named Palmer who does not want to become a wringer, but faces intense peer pressure to join in the tradition. "Wringer" is an intense study of social pressure, gender roles among children, bullying, and the rationalization of violence. The book also contains a memorable portrait of one very special human-animal "friendship." Palmer is a compelling hero, and Spinelli's stark writing style has a lyrical beauty which reminded me of Ernest Hemingway. Particularly interesting is Spinelli's use of symbolism involving popular culture icons. This is a remarkable novel which I recommend highly to readers of all ages.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wringer, April 25, 2001

By 

Sarah Horton (Clemson, SC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wringer (Trophy Newbery) (Paperback)

Mills, Claudia. "The Structure of the Moral Dilemma in Shiloh." Children's Literature 1999: 185-196. Spinelli, Jerry. Wringer. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. The novel Wringer tells the story of Palmer LaRue, a young boy who faces a number of crucial decisions. The book takes place within a little over a year. Palmer celebrates his 9th birthday in the first half, then his 10th birthday in the second half. Palmer's group of friends consists of three boys, Beans, Mutto and Henry. The boys' main goal during their childhood is to become a wringer. A wringer is a young boy, 10 years of age, whose job is to break the necks of pigeons who aren't completely shot and killed during the annual pigeon shooting contest in their town. The only problem is that, Palmer dreads his 10th birthday because the last thing he wants is to become a wringer. Throughout the novel, Palmer faces this moral dilemma, and he must decide whether he should please his friends, his parents, society, or himself. Claudia Mills explains this struggle when she comments that; " children are trying to sort through their moral obligations against a background of their parents' beliefs...and transmitted beliefs of their culture"(185). Palmer's gang of friends all desire to be wringers, with the exception of Henry who just plays along so that Beans and Mutto will accept him. Since they constantly put pressure on Palmer to be "cool," Palmer goes along with them to be accepted not only by his friends, but by society as well. The pigeon-shooting contest is a known tradition in the town where Palmer lives and he thinks something is wrong with him since he doesn't like the activity. He exclaims, " I'm going to be ten in 71 days, and then I'm going to have to be a wringer and I don't want to. So what kind of kid am I? Everybody wants to kill pigeons but me. What's the matter with me?" Palmer believes he has the problem, when in actuality he is acting on his conscience and what he believes is morally right. According to Palmer, killing pigeons is wrong because there is no reason for it. When his younger friend Dorothy asks him why people kill pigeons, he simply says, "He was born a pigeon"(185). With this comment Palmer is reinstating the fact that the killing of the pigeons is done for no good reason at all. The townspeople support the shootings because it brings money to their park facilities. However, Mills writes that in the novel Shiloh, Marty's character "claims that it is love, not money, that should establish relation of belonging"(192). This theory also holds true in Wringer, because Palmer's love for Nipper, his pet pigeon, he believes is a much stronger force than the town park money problem. Throughout the story, Palmer continually struggles with what his dad thinks of him. Palmer's dad won the "sharp-shooter" award one year at the pigeon shootings, and Palmer believes that his dad will be disappointed in him if he tells his dad how he really feels. Later on in the story, Palmer is relieved to find out that his dad really didn't plan on pressuring Palmer into anything he didn't want to do. This realization makes Palmer much happier toward the end of the novel, and with his parents around to support him, he doesn't feel as insecure about his feelings anymore. Palmer LaRue, the main character in Wringer, struggles with moral dilemmas: he desires to please his family, friends and town, but he also wants to do what he feels is right. As the novel progresses, Palmer feels more strongly about his ideas; and at the conclusion of the story, he knows his decision is the right one for him.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wringer, January 9, 2001

By 

Sandy Keppel (Akron,New York,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wringer (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (School & Library Binding)

Have you ever been pressured to by so-called "friends" to do something you didn't want to do? That's exactly what Palmer's position was in the book, Wringer. Every year, Palmer's hometown would hold a Family Fun Fair, and every Family Fun Fair, there was an Annual Pigeon Shoot. Five thousand pigeons would be shot, and the wounded ones' necks would be wrung by "wringers". Palmer did not want to be a wringer, and he didn't want to be old enough to be one. His "friends", Beans (Arthur), Mutto (Billy), and Henry (George) all wanted to be wringers. Palmer, of course was the misfit, so unlike them, he didn't want to be one. When a typical January snowstorm hits the neighborhood, something other than snow blows in. To Palmer's horror, it is a pigeon, which was too dumb to realize it was at the wrong town, and at the wrong house. The pigeon, dubbed "Nipper", begins to visit Palmer's house regularly. Palmer decides to keep him as a pet in secret, without Beans, Mutto, Henry, or his parents know. His neighbor, Dorothy Gruzik comes every day to visit Palmer and Nipper. They all become good friends. Things begin to get bad with Nipper's arrival. Every day, Nipper would fly near Palmer and even land on his head in some occasions. Palmer tries everything to evade Nipper- he stays after school, he goes home a different route, he even disguises himself. Nipper would always make Palmer feel emabarrassed. The day of the Pigeon Shoot grows nearer and nearer, so Palmer decides it's time for Nipper to leave. He depends on Dorothy to let Nipper go. Dorothy does this deed, but at the wrong place, at the wrong time. She lets him go at the railroad yards- the same place where the pigeons are caught! Does Nipper get caught? Will Palmer save him in time? Read this book to find out. What would you do to save a friend? Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to read Wringer, a book you will never put down.