Peggy the Always Sorry Pigeon

Poor Peggy the pigeon always assumes she is in the wrong. Her automatic reaction to any conversation is to blurt out ‘Sorry!’ Shouted at by bossy pigeons and the roadsweeper, and yapped at by a little dog, Peggy feels very sorry for herself. Only when a great big seagull alights next to her and tells her she should stop saying sorry when she hasn’t done anything wrong does Peggy question her responses. The seagull points out that in fact Peggy has been bullied, and she needs to learn to stand up for herself. With constant gentle reminders from Seagull to repeat her new replies when harried, but louder, Peggy tries other responses rather than her customary SORRY. Like ‘Soggy hat sandwich,’ and ‘Ice cream ketchup pants.’  Peggy thanks the seagull for helping her stand up for herself. The seagull replies, ‘You’re crumbtastically, seagullastically amazing,’ to a reformed pigeon. 

The text is a timely reminder of the power of facing up to bullies. The illustrations throughout show a cowed Peggy until with help from the huge seagull, she realises life can be different for her. Friendship from an unlikely source is appreciated and is life transforming. Readers will want to absorb the state of play through the pictures on each spread before turning the page to find out how the story pans out.