Gary

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Author: Leila Rudge  
Illustrator: Leila Rudge 
Publisher: Moss Vale, NSW: Walker Books Australia Pt, 2017








This story relates the ironic situation in which the central character, Gary, is a racing pigeon who cannot fly. In many other respects, Gary is the same as other pigeons in the flock. He pecks at seeds, sleeps, and dreams of faraway places, except for on racing days when his disability to fly fails him and he is left behind at their loft. At its best, he can just record the adventures of his lucky fellows in his scrapbook. 

Surprisingly, a plot this tragic and this predictable as it seems, undergoes a twist and the flightless pigeon protagonist succeeds to go for his own adventurous flight. One evening, the bird clumsily falls into the racers’ travel basket and the next morning, he awakens and finds himself having been taken to a race far from home.

Now it is all he has done so far, his records in scrapbook, with its maps and travel notes that sets him on the right path and helps him navigate his way back home. 

Muted illustrations which themselves look like an scrapbook, work wonderfully with the text, establishing a light-hearted playful tone and depicts how Gary’s difference can be a gain and his new way of going for adventure is something that the other pigeons sometimes want to explore.  


For more information:
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