Pigeon Summer

Set in the Depression years of the 1930s, Pigeon Summer follows 11-year-old Mary Dyer's attempts to race her father's pigeons as he leaves home to find work in coal mines further afield. Mary is an outsider - a girl in a man's sport, flouting convention to achieve her ambitions and finding an unexpected ally in Arnold, similarly ostracised by the village community. The family's struggle against poverty is seen and felt through Mary's eyes and stomach - most keenly when her mother kills and cooks two of the pigeons to keep the family from starvation. A warm, engrossing story which resonates with quiet adventure. Honesty and determination are rewarded in a happy ending which scrupulously avoids patronising its young readers.