wringer

Reader Response to Wringer by Jerry Spinelli

The inside cover reads:
"He did not want to be a wringer. 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. This thing, this not wanting to be a wringer, did it every knock him from his bike? Untie his sneaker lace? Call him a name? Stand up and fight? Palmer thinks that becoming a wringer is something he can't stop... until one day a visitor shows up at his window. It was simply, merely there, a whisper of featherwings, reminding him of the moment he dreaded above all the others. Should he open the window? In his dreams the moment had already come. Should he invite fear into his room? In his dreams he looks down to find his hands around the neck of the pigeon. What is it like to be hated? For much of hils life Palmer LaRue had flet he was standing at the edge of a black, bottomless hole. On the fifty-ninth day before his tenth birthday, he fell in."

My Rxn:
excellent book about mob mentalities... and small town minds. rituals that groups of boys go through... things that they see as a rite of passage. Can be seen as an animal rights book.... comparable in theme to Hoot, but plot line and suspension of disbelief are better. characters are very realistic. Major protagonist is only 10, but i think anyone can identify with this book. It also has some choice vocabulary in it as well. an excellent read. I would use it in my classroom.