PREEP: The Little Pigeon of Trafalgar Square

It's hard to imagine Trafalgar Square without pigeons, but the Square, in fact all of London, went birdless when the pigeons decided to boycott humans until the kidnapped Preep was returned. Preep (short for preposterous) was more ham tham bird -- he played with all the children and cut elaborate capers before the delighted photographers. He seemed to be destined for pigeon pie, however, when one day he disappeared in the hat of a hungry looking stranger. Preep's father organized the pigeon community with ousing Hyde Park style speech -- only one of the ticklers built-in for adult readers. When the pigeons went to roost, ignoring children, proffered corn, and the photographers who made their living from pigeon-feeding candids, the man who bird-napped Preep realized he was the cause of the pigeon population's disappearance and returned Preep. This unreasonable deduction clangs with contrivance, spoiling what started out as a good nonsense story. It's an easy enough point to overlook for the sake of the handsomely stylized illustrations which show brightly colored landmarks and pigeons against the muted tones of London in fog and rain.