Gay-Neck : The Story of a Pigeon Book

A couple of the other Newbery project members and I have -- while attempting to finish Gay-Neck -- discussed the need for a new edition with an updated title. Proposed titles include:

Iridescence-Throated: The story of the pigeon who ran away a lot
Which Colorful Bird?: A story about everything BUT the pigeon
Pigeon Rocks India!: The story of a rich boy, his famous bird, and some random hunter who keeps showing up

Of course, a new edition will never be published because this is one of the most fantastically boring books you will ever read. Really. The basic plotline goes something like this: boy gets bird, boy trains bird, boy takes bird far away to see if it will fly home, bird gets attacked by scary predator, bird is too afraid to fly, bird gets healed by a lama. Repeat many times (with slight variations) until Dhan Gopal Mukerji gets tired of writing about this bird and tells his readers to live with courage. (Hmm ... perhaps Gay-Neck's story was actually the story of man and Mukerji wanted to teach his young readers how to be free and live without fear. Perhaps. But even that can't redeem this book.)