A Day No Pigs Would Die

Robert Newton Peck

Jan 2010 · Sold by Laurel Leaf

About this ebook

Originally published in hardcover in 1972, A Day No Pigs Would Die was one of the first young adult books, along with titles like The Outsiders and The Chocolate War. In it, author Robert Newton Peck weaves a story of
a Vermont boyhood that is part fiction, part memoir. The result is a moving coming-of-age story that still resonates with teens today.

Ratings and reviews

This book is an excellent book with a ton of emotion that packs a punch and holds on to you. A Day No Pigs Would Die deals with a 12 year old boy who encounters various emotional situations dealing with his beloved pig and dad. A Day No Pigs Would Die is a tiny slice of genius dealing with a 12 year old boy named Robert Peck who has to help his father on their farm. It can't be judged by a descriptive birthing scene in the first chapter, or the descriptive "climax" toward the end. Shocking things happen but also funny events. We are allowed to see a young boy growing into a man, and the responsibilities he accepts at such a young age are remarkable. Today's children could take a lesson from 12-year old Robert Peck; less video games, less television, more hard work (reading and learning is included, not just farm work). Many exciting things happen in this book that may astound in many ways. Almost all of the action takes place on the Shaker farm that belongs to Haven Peck and his family. We see a written relationship between a son who loves his father, and while his father is not a great man as many would measure him; his son wants to grow up to be just like him because he sees greatness in his father. Readers may not agree with the strictness applied by the father, but the man is loving and caring, and intent on teaching his son how to be a man, and how to act properly. With the "graphic" nature of the novel, it wasn't graphic - it was descriptive. If the description in the first chapter of Rob's assistance in birthing the two cows was the only place such description was used, then it could be considered gratuitous, but it wasn't. The author was detailed in his detail, even for the most mundane things, like creating a tool to help their ox create a pen for Rob's new pig, Pinky. Early in the novel Rob receives a piglet as a reward for saving the life of a neighbor's cow. Robert names the pig Pinky and she becomes his cherished pet. Pinky is infertile however which means that the only existing alternative for the monetarily struggling Peck family is to butcher the pig. These problems, combined with the passing away of his father deeply change Rob and force him to grow up and become a man. The book is filled with facts about the way Shaker's live and approach the world around.

It didn't really have much of a plot, and I, personally, think that it was really boring. The ending was terrible, too.

I think this book is so gross............ It was a good story though. I didnt like all the grusome parts though.

About the author

Robert Newton Peck comes from generations of Yankee farmers. Like the Vermont folk he writes about in his novel, he was raised as a boy in the Shaker Way, which endured even after the sect itself had died out. Its view of life is embodied in the character of his young protagonist's father, who believed that a faith is more blessed when put to use than when put to word: "A man's worship counts for naught, unless his dog and cat are the better for it."