Seb Denny - Aged 7 - Winner!
What an amazing imagination this author has! From that opening illustration to the final word, we loved Crumbs the Pigeon. This is a brilliant story about a bird rising from nothing to become a prince. We loved Crumbs’s initial bewilderment and wonder at the world, and his ascent to egg rescuer is just great. We would love to go to Pigeontropolis and enjoyed the way an extraordinary world was created around a very ordinary bird. This story had humour, imagination and some brilliant bad guys! The vibrant imagery opening up the world from a small nest amongst trees to a large avian metropolis built on gold and diamonds is equal parts fun & imaginative! This is exceptionally well-paced and the writer uses a strong range of descriptive words to help immerse the reader. A thoroughly enjoyable read!!
Crumbs the Pigeon
Chapter 1 – New World
Once upon a time, there was an egg. For a few minutes it was rolling around in a nest. Suddenly a crack appeared on the smooth white surface and then a rather small pigeon popped out.
It took a while for the pigeon’s eyes to adjust to the light. The pigeon gazed at his surroundings. Suddenly he got so curious that he hopped out of the nest landing on a pile of leaves. A fully grown pigeon swooped down and grabbed the little pigeon. She flew up and put him back in the nest.
Chapter 2 – Home
For some reason, the fully grown pigeon seemed very trustworthy. Although the small pigeon didn’t know her, he really liked her. ‘We will be meeting daddy soon’ she said. The little pigeon wondered what daddy was.
A big pigeon strutted in. He said ‘good morning little pigeon’. ‘I brought you a hat’ he chirped. He placed a soft thing on the little pigeon’s head. Daddy said ‘let’s have a ride around Pigeontropolis. The small pigeon, not knowing what Pigeontropolis was like, jumped on daddy’s back. They flew into the air. The small pigeon was amazed to see thousand of pigeons. Occasionally he would see some that were about his size.
Chapter 3 – Pigeontropolis
The little pigeon saw a humoungous building. Standing in front were pigeons dressed in red with a tall black thing on their head. They were holding spears. Daddy said that they were called Seed Eaters.
The little pigeon’s eyes started to shut. The next thing he knew he was tucked up in his nest. As his eyes opened he could see a crack of sunlight. He noticed he had been moved to a shady area. His parents were squawking like usual, but they were squawking ‘how about we call him Wings or Peter?’ They finally decided on Crumbs.
Chapter 4 – The Hollow
Crumbs noticed there were a lot of eggs around him that looked similar to his egg. On every tree there was a nest. In most nests there was at least one egg.
Suddenly Crumbs saw a small, striped hand grab an egg and scurry off.
A big fat pigeon jumped off a tree shouting ‘my eggs gone!’
Crumbs saw small, faded foot prints leading to a very odd looking hole. The problem was he was too big to fit through. Just then he lost his balance. He fell and broke through the hole. He was still falling. He fell onto a pile of leaves. He picked himself up. He was in some sort of hollow. He was feeling scared.
Out of nowhere he saw a collection of eggs including a pigeon egg. He grabbed the pigeon egg. But he heard a hiss. He dived behind the eggs. A striped lizard walked through the hollow. Crumbs grabbed hold of the lizard’s tail, keeping the egg under his wing. The lizard scuttled through a network of holes. Crumbs held on tightly to the lizard’s tail. Then the lizard leaped into fresh air.
Crumbs ran to Pigeontropolis. He stepped into the village and returned the egg to the big fat pigeon. ‘Thank you’ said the big fat pigeon. Crumbs told the big fat pigeon everything that had happened, how the lizards had taken the egg and how they have a hollow full of stolen eggs. The big pigeon said ‘how horrid!’ and flew off with his egg to tell the other pigeons.
The pigeons went crazy. They held the eggs high up in the air so the lizards couldn’t get them. They hurriedly moved their nests around, swapping trees.
The King Pigeon went the most crazy. His eggs were sat in a huge throne made out of diamond and gold. They were protected as safely as possible. All the Seed Eaters were marching around. Some had guns and some had bow and arrows, and some had spears. There was also a huge wall built out of diamond and there were a lot of dangerous stuff around the wall with the eggs inside.
Chapter 5 – The Plan
The pigeons strutted to a rather big building that had been newly built. They opened the door and sat around in a circle. Crumbs walked through and stood in the middle. The big fat pigeon went ‘coo coo’. Other pigeons flapped their wings. One evenly accidentally took off. He frantically flew back down.
Crumbs said ‘I have a plan to save our eggs. We need to build traps. It doesn’t matter what traps, just traps. Crafter pigeon you need to build a nest with pretend eggs in that look very similar to pigeon eggs so the lizards will want to get them. Pigeons we need to find a dead tree to use for our trap. Digger pigeons we need you to dig a hole and any pigeons to jump into the hole and to hold cages up.’
It was all set. All the pigeons had to do was wait.
Chapter 6 – The Lizards Struck Again
It was a silent night. Some pigeons were in the hole holding cages ready to catch the lizards. They waited for a while and the lizards still didn’t come.
Suddenly they saw a striped creature scurrying towards them. It jumped onto the branch, grabbing hold of the egg. There was a splintering noise. Just then, the branch broke and gave away and the nest fell into the hole with a thump. The lizard waved its tail in the air for a moment, and then fell into the cage. And another lizard. And then another. Until there were four lizards. The pigeons slammed the cage shut. The lizards were trapped inside. But the lizards weren’t stupid. They stood on each other’s hands and the one at the top punched the lid off. The lizards jumped into the air and scurried away into their hollow.
Chapter 7 – The pit
The pigeons had another meeting. Crumbs announced that they were going to make a pit. Crumbs said the pigeons could put anything down above the pit. They would get the pretend nest that was in the last trap and put it on top of all the stuff.
They waited for nightfall. Crumbs felt confident that this would trap would work. They put out cameras. The cameras recorded nothing interesting for a while. Suddenly it recorded a small creature moving in the grass. The camera moved a little bit. The creature stepped onto the leaves. Suddenly the ground broke and the little lizard fell into the hole. It looked around for a minute. It tried to get back up but it couldn’t.
When morning sunlight appeared, the pigeons checked the camera to see what was in the pit. The pigeons jumped with victory.
Meanwhile, inside the hollow the lizards were going crazy. One was shouting ‘we don’t have a master, what are we going to do?’ and another lizard shouted ‘our boss has gone’.
The pigeons were having the time of their life when they realised they had captured the king lizard. They were shouting ‘coo coo’. One of the pigeons was dancing, waggling his tail and waving his wings around.
Chapter 8 – Mechanical Machines
The pigeons once again had a meeting. Crumbs said ‘we need the mechanics to build giant machines that can lift up rocks’. The mechanics boss said ‘right away’. The mechanics were twisting screws with screwdrivers and placing bits and bobs down. Finally the mechanics were done. They had built three huge mechanical machines with giant hands to lift up stones.
Crumbs got in the biggest machine, and two other pigeons got in the smaller ones. They started moving the machines and lifting up rocks. Crumbs drove near the hollow. He knew there would be loads of lizards down there. He reached the hands of the machine down the hole and into the hollow, grabbing a handful of lizards. The other machines came behind and grabbed even more lizards.
All the lizards had been captured. Crumbs ordered for there to be pigeons holding out cages. The machines put lizards in each cage. Then the pigeons stared at the cages and slammed the lids shut. They carried the cages into a big room in Pigeontropolis.
Chapter 9 – Victory
The pigeons declared ‘we love you Crumbs, we want you to be our prince’. The pigeons handed him a crown made of solid gold encrusted with jewels.
Crumbs said that they would have a huge party because they had saved the eggs. The pigeons were singing and dancing. They were loving it. The loud speakers said it was time for food. They had a huge buffet with slugs, snails, seeds, crumbs and a lot more.
After the party, Crumbs said that if pigeons wanted, they could ride on the lizards.
The end.
