Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon

Author	Dhan Gopal Mukerji
Illustrator	Boris Artzybasheff
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Children's novel
Publisher	E. P. Dutton
Publication date	1928
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	191 pp

Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon is an exciting children's book written by Dhan Gopal Mukerji in 1928. It won the Newbery Medal in 1928, which is a really important award for the best American children's books. The story is all about the life of a special Indian pigeon named Gay-Neck.

The author, Dhan Gopal Mukerji, wanted to show that "people and birds are like brothers." He said that many parts of the book are based on his own childhood. He grew up with a flock of forty pigeons, and the boy in the book is actually him! For other parts, like the messenger pigeons in the war, he learned from people who trained them.

The book gives you a peek into what life was like for a boy from a well-known family in India in the early 1900s. It also shows how pigeons were trained. Some chapters are even told from Gay-Neck's point of view, where the pigeon himself is speaking!

Elizabeth Seeger, who wrote about Mukerji, said that he wrote Gay-Neck in France. Every afternoon, he would read the chapter he wrote that morning to children gathered on the beach. Meena G. Khorana, a writer about children's books, noted that this novel is one of the few that truly explores the Himalayas. It shows their "grandeur and spiritual power" in a deep way.

Story of Gay-Neck the Pigeon

Gay-Neck, whose real name is Chitra-Griva, is born to a young owner in India. His parents teach him how to fly. But soon, a storm takes his father, and a hawk takes his mother.

His young master and a hunter named Ghond take Gay-Neck into the wild. However, Gay-Neck gets so scared by the hawks that he flies away. He ends up at a lamasery, which is a special place where Buddhist monks live. The monks help him get over his fear.

When his young master returns home, he finds Gay-Neck waiting for him. But Gay-Neck decides to go on other long trips, which makes the boy a bit worried.

Gay-Neck in World War I

Later, during World War I, Gay-Neck and Ghond travel to Europe. There, Gay-Neck works as a messenger pigeon, carrying important messages. German "machine-eagles" (which are airplanes) chase him. He becomes very scared and upset when one of his fellow messenger pigeons is shot down.

Gay-Neck and Ghond barely survive the war, and Gay-Neck is so shaken that he cannot fly. Ghond, Gay-Neck, and his master return to the lamasery near Singalila in the Himalayas. They need to heal from the fear and bad feelings of the war.

After this, Ghond successfully hunts a buffalo that had harmed a villager. But he feels sad about having to kill the animal. Gay-Neck disappears again for a while. But when Ghond and the master return home, they are overjoyed to find that Gay-Neck had already flown there ahead of them!