Seeking representation
If VIOLET CRUNKLEY said aloud that her best friend was a pigeon, that she spoke Pigeonese, and was an Honorary Member of the Carl Schurz Park Pigeon Flock (Non-Flying Status), everyone would swear she was bonkers. Tell humans about her pigeon world? Seriously? Then, New York City Mayor Riblet announces plans to destroy the City's "sky rats". Aghast, Violet and her best friend, a pigeon named Herkimer, set out to keep the pigeons safe. Then Herkimer goes missing. Despite her genius IQ, Violet learns that without her best friend, she's a hide-under-the-bed coward. She stumbles across Mayor Riblet’s get-rich scheme to sell the pigeons’ feathers as expensive, exotic (and secretly counterfeit) plumes, and to toss the pigeons’ plucked bodies into the city dump. Now it's up to Violet to bring down the Mayor, find her best friend, and save the pigeons. But is that something that a coward can even do? Enter Paloma, a fellow school misfit and Violet’s first non-flying friend. Can Violet’s brains and Paloma’s guts save the pigeons? Armed with cans of spray paint, the girls sneak out on to the dark city streets. They are about to find out.
©Lucy A. Greenburg 2026