Wringer

A young boy lives in a bucolic rough neighborhood. The town's big event includes a pigeon shoot, where sharppshooters shoot down thousands of live pigeons (with the remains being used for fertilizer). Ten year old boys serve as "wringers", gathering up the felled pigeons and wringing the necks of the living ones. As a birthday "right of passage", boys receive "the treatment" from an older boy - one hard punch in the shoulder for each year of age.

One day, a pigeon flies in to the boy's room. He eventually adopts the pigeon as a pet. After doing this, he gradually becomes alienated from the gang of tough's that he hangs out with - and closer to the girl across the street. In the dramatic conclusion, he saves his pigeon from being shot in the big pigeon shoot.

Similar to other Spinelli books, this one presents a kid who struggles with the desire to fit in, while also wanting to be himself.