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 leanrs 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. Violet, stunned and horrified, must bring down the Mayor, find her best friend, and save the pigeons. But is that something that a coward can even do? Turning to one of her inventions, she concocts a plan that could save her cherished friends. There’s only one problem. The Mayor has just ordered nets to be prepared for the Great Pigeon Roundup. Violet is too late. Courage is what she needs now. That, and help from human friends—if she can find ones who will believe in her.
©Lucy A. Greenburg 2026