Week 9 – Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Written by: Laurie Halse Anderson
APA citation: Anderson, L. (1999). Speak. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.
Cover image: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/439288.Speak

My summary of the plot: While attending a party right before starting high school, Melinda is raped by a popular boy. She calls the police and gets everybody in trouble. She is ostracized by everyone at school, including her good friends.

Keywords: Emotional problems, rape, high school

My assessment: This is a short and very powerful book. The quote that broke my heart was this one:

“Maybe I’ll be an artist if I grow up” (N.P.).

Audio review: This book is well read by Mandy Siegfried. She brings just the right amount of emotion to the novel.
Citation for audio book: Anderson, L.H. (2000). Speak. [Audio Recording]. New York: Listening Library.

Review from a library journal:
Gr 8 Up –This powerful novel deals with a difficult yet important topic-rape. Melinda is just starting high school. It should be one of the greatest times in her life, but instead of enjoying herself, she is an outcast. She has been marked as the girl who called the police to break up the big end-of-the-summer party, and all the kids are angry at her. Even her closest friends have pulled away. No one knows why she made the call, and even Melinda can’t really articulate what happened. As the school year goes on, her grades plummet and she withdraws into herself to the point that she’s barely speaking. Her only refuge is her art class, where she learns to find ways to express some of her feelings. As her freshman year comes to an end, Melinda finally comes to terms with what happened to her-she was raped at that party by an upperclassman who is still taunting her at school. When he tries again, she finds her voice, and her classmates realize the truth. The healing process will take time, but Melinda no longer has to deal with it alone. Anderson expresses the emotions and the struggles of teenagers perfectly. Melinda’s pain is palpable, and readers will totally empathize with her. This is a compelling book, with sharp, crisp writing that draws readers in, engulfing them in the story.
Citation for book review: Sherman, D. (1999). Grades 5 & Up: Fiction. School Library Journal, 45(10), 144.

Recommendations for library or classroom use: This would be an excellent book for both a book club and also individual reading.

Week 8 – Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

Written by: Gail Carson Levine
APA Citation: Levine, G.C. (2006). Fairest. New York: HarperCollins.
Book cover image: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/183660.Fairest

My summary of the plot: This is a very loose retelling of the Snow White story. A young girl works at her family’s inn and is invited to act as a lady’s companion and go to the king’s wedding. She has the ability to throw her voice and is conned into providing the voice of the new queen. When the lie is discovered she must leave the castle and flee for her life. Will her prince come after her?

Keywords: Fairy tales, self-image, romance

My assessment: This book is not for everyone. I listened to the full-cast audio version. Think full on opera/musical style complete with cheesy music. The story was okay but honestly, I couldn’t wait for this one to be over. The book is full of songs because the country that they live in values music and musical ability very highly. There were many songs…so many songs. The audio version is a full cast production with many actors voicing the parts. The songs were very operatic at some times and at other times it sounded like a musical. The production was well done but it couldn’t save this lackluster book.

Audio review: The full-cast production was well done if you have a high tolerance for musicals and operas.
Audio citation:  Levine, G.C. (2007). Fairest. [Audio Recording]. Syracuse, NY: Full Cast Audio

A library review:
Gr 6 Up– In a world in which elegance, beauty, and singing ability are revered, Aza is bulky, awkward, and homely. Her saving grace is that she can sing and has a gift of voice manipulation that she calls “illusing.” Through a chance meeting at her family’s inn, a duchess invites Aza to act as her companion and accompany her to the palace to attend the king’s wedding. When the beautiful new queen discovers Aza’s gift for throwing her voice and for mimicry, she sees a way of protecting her reputation and disguising her own lack of talent. Pressured by the woman’s threats upon her family, Aza deceives the court into believing that Ivi is a gifted singer. When the ruse is discovered, Aza is forced to flee the castle in order to save her life. Through her adventures, she discovers her own strength of character, learns about her true heritage, and decides that her physical appearance is not worthy of the stress and worry she has wasted on it. The plot is fast-paced, and Aza’s growth and maturity are well crafted and believable. Readers will enjoy the fairy-tale setting while identifying with the real-life problems of living in an appearance-obsessed society. A distinguished addition to any collection.
Citation for book review: Buron, M. C. (2006). Fairest. School Library Journal, 52(9), 209-210.

My recommendation for use: I would only recommend this book to a theater/music geek kind of kid.

Week 7 – The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Written by: Patrick Ness
APA Citation: Ness, P. (2008). The knife of never letting go. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
Cover Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knife_of_Never_Letting_Go

My summery of the plot: Todd and his dog, Manchee are out picking apples when they come across a place that has no noise (no overheard thoughts). On the planet they live on all of the men can hear the others’ thoughts. The silent place turns out to be a girl, who has survived a space ship crash. Todd and the girl, Viola, end up running from the men of Todd’s hometown.

Keywords: Space colonies, telepathy, war

My assessment: This is a great adventure novel but it also has some really deep themes such as colonization, sexism. slavery, and racism. The novel is a compelling read.

“That’s another thing about Noise. Everything that’s ever happened to you just keeps right on talking, for ever and ever.”

“But a knife ain’t just a thing, is it? It’s a choice, it’s something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don’t. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again. ”

Audio review: The novel is read by Nick Podehl. He has a very distinctive voice. There are nice special effects whenever the noise is talked about.
Citation for audio book: Ness, P. (2010). The knife of never letting go. [Audio Recording]. Grand Haven, MI: Brilliance Audio.

Review from a library journal:
Gr 9 Up –Todd Hewitt lives in a world in which all women are dead, and the thoughts of men and animals are constantly audible as Noise. Graphically represented by a set of scratchy fonts and sentence fragments that run into and over each other, Noise is an oppressive chaos of words, images, and sounds that makes human company exhausting and no thought truly private. The history of these peculiar circumstances unfolds over the course of the novel, but Ness’s basic world-building is so immediately successful that readers, too, will be shocked when Todd and his dog, Manchee, first notice a silence in the Noise. Realizing that he must keep the silence secret from the town leaders, he runs away, and his terrified flight with an army in pursuit makes up the backbone of the plot. The emotional, physical, and intellectual drama is well crafted and relentless. Todd, who narrates in a vulnerable and stylized voice, is a sympathetic character who nevertheless makes a few wrenching mistakes. Manchee and Aaron, a zealot preacher, function both as characters and as symbols. Tension, suspense, and the regular bombardment of Noise are palpable throughout, mitigated by occasional moments of welcome humor. The cliff-hanger ending is unexpected and unsatisfying, but the book is still a pleasure for sophisticated readers comfortable with the length and the bleak, literary tone.
Citation for book review: Honig, M. (2008). The Knife of Never Letting Go. School Library Journal, 54(11), 133-134.

Recommendations for library or classroom use: I would recommend this novel for all students, especially younger male, reluctant readers.

Week 6 – The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Written by: Leslye Walton
APA Citation: Walton, L. (2014). The strange and beautiful sorrows of Ava Lavender. Westminster, MD: Penguin Random House.
Book cover Image: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18166936-the-strange-and-beautiful-sorrows-of-ava-lavender

My summary:
     Ava Lavender was born with wings. No big deal. When she was born the neighborhood gathered at the hospital. She grew up secluded and people mostly forgot about her until she was a teenager. Ava’s mother can smell love, happiness, and sadness. It is just taken for granted that she has this super-smell ability. Ava’s grandmother sees and talks to ghosts. She not only sees them but they give her important information. These are just three examples of magical realism. They add an element of sparkle to a story that would be interesting without them but is made more exciting with the addition.

Keywords: Love, grief, wings

My assessment: This is my favorite book from this year. There are many moments of magical realism in this novel but they are all described so matter-of-factly that the magical parts seem totally believable. Magical realism is very marketable right now.  This novel is beautifully written. Here are some examples.

“To my mother, I was everything. To my father, nothing at all. To my grandmother, I was a daily reminder of loves long lost.”

“Nocturnal birds gathered on the lawns like pious parishioners to eat noisily, their doomed prey screaming wildly into the dark.”

Audio review: This book is beautifully narrated by Cassandra Campbell. 
Citation for audio book: Walton, L. (2014). The strange and beautiful sorrows of Ava Lavender. [Audio Recording]. Grand Haven, MI: Brilliance Audio.

A professional review:
Gr 9 Up–Walton’s novel is both strange and beautiful in the best of ways. Though the titular Ava serves as narrator and ultimately the tale’s heroine, her story spans multiple generations, starting with her great-grandmother, remembered only as Maman, an immigrant to “Manhatine” two generations earlier. Through the eyes of her grandmother Emilienne, and then her mother Vivianne, Ava’s lineage unfolds. Emilienne, suffering a broken heart, leaves New York and travels to Seattle, where she sets up shop as a baker on Pinnacle Lane. She gives birth to Vivianne, Ava’s mother, who later suffers her own heartbreak and gives birth to Ava in 1944. Ava is a normal girl with one notable exception: she was born with the wings of a bird. Ava looks to the stories of her matriarchs to make sense of her own life and to understand how to navigate the world as both an “other” and a typical teenage girl. It is not until a fateful day in her 16th year that many narrative threads come to a head. This multigenerational tale examines love and considers the conflicting facets of loving and being loved–desire, despair, depression, obsession, self-love, and courage. Difficult to categorize, this is a mystical tale, a historical novel, a coming-of-age story, laced with folkloric qualities and magic realism, often evocative of great narratives like Erin Morgenstern’s transcendent The Night Circus (Doubleday, 2011) or the classic Like Water for Chocolate (Anchor, 1995) by Laura Esquivel. It is beautifully crafted and paced, mystical yet grounded by universal themes and sympathetic characters. A unique book, highly recommended for readers looking for something a step away from ordinary.–Jill Heritage Maza, Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair, NJ
Citation for book review: Maza, J. H. (2014). The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. School Library Journal, 60(2), 116.

Recommendations for library or classroom use: This novel would be excellent for a book club. I would also recommend it for individual reading.

Fan art: http://bloggers-heart-books.blogspot.com/2015_04_01_archive.html

Week 5 – American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Written by: Gene Luen Yang
APA Citation: Yang, G.L. (2006). American born Chinese. New York: Square Fish
Book cover image: http://www.amazon.com/American-Born-Chinese-Gene-Luen/dp/0312384483

My summary of the plot: Three stories intertwine in this graphic novel. In the first story, Jin Wang’s family moves to a new neighborhood and he is the only Chinese-American student. Kids tease and bully him. The second part is an old fable about the monkey king. The third story is about a kid who is the epitome of a Chinese stereotype. Chin-Kee is ruining his cousin Danny’s life by acting different than everyone else.

Keywords: Chinese-American, Racism, Immigration

My assessment:  This funny graphic novel was full of action while also conveying a deeper message about racism in America. It is skillfully written and drawn. Instead of a quote from the book, this is an image from the end that shows Danny’s/Jin Wang’s transformation.

Audio review: As a graphic novel, an audio book is not available.

A professional review:
Gr 7 Up– Graphic novels that focus on nonwhite characters are exceedingly rare in American comics. Enter American Born Chinese, a well-crafted work that aptly explores issues of self-image, cultural identity, transformation, and self-acceptance. In a series of three linked tales, the central characters are introduced: Jin Wang, a teen who meets with ridicule and social isolation when his family moves from San Francisco’s Chinatown to an exclusively white suburb; Danny, a popular blond, blue-eyed high school jock whose social status is jeopardized when his goofy, embarrassing Chinese cousin, Chin-Kee, enrolls at his high school; and the Monkey King who, unsatisfied with his current sovereign, desperately longs to be elevated to the status of a god. Their stories converge into a satisfying coming-of-age novel that aptly blends traditional Chinese fables and legends with bathroom humor, action figures, and playground politics. Yang’s crisp line drawings, linear panel arrangement, and muted colors provide a strong visual complement to the textual narrative. Like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Laurence Yep’s Dragonwings, this novel explores the impact of the American dream on those outside the dominant culture in a finely wrought story that is an effective combination of humor and drama.
Citation for book review: Crawford, P. C. (2006). American Born Chinese. School Library Journal, 52(9), 240.

Recommendations for library or classroom use:  I could see recommending this book to reluctant readers, especially boys, in middle and high school. American Born Chinese is not straightforward. Yang uses metaphor to explore the racism that young people of color experience in America. I would love to see this novel taught in a middle school English class or used in a book club. I’m not sure that most younger readers would understand the novel. This is what I loved about the novel – a text that has a low reading level (grade 3.3 according to Scholastic) and yet could be discussed and analyzed for days.

Week 4 ~ The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

Written by: Jeannette Walls
APA Citation: Walls, J. (2005). The glass castle. New York: Scribner
Cover image: http://www.amazon.com/The-Glass-Castle-A-Memoir/dp/074324754X

My summary of the plot: The true story of Jeannette Walls’s childhood. Her family often moved to stay one step ahead of bill collectors, finally ending up in a small West Virginia mining town. Both parents are neglectful, leaving the kids to fend for themselves.

Keywords: Poverty, West Virginia, Children of alcoholics

My assessment: This memoir was complex in that even as you hated her mother for refusing to get a job so that her kids could eat, you admired her commitment to her art. The same is true for the father. He was wildly inventive and imaginative when he was sober. On his good days, he would do things like give his children planets for their birthday. On his bad days, he would break open their piggy bank and steal all of their money as well as their hopes and dreams for the future. These parents were not abusive as much as criminally neglectful. It broke my heart to read about the main character digging through the school bathroom garbage can to find something to eat.

“We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa Clause myth and got nothing but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. ‘Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten,’ Dad said, ‘you’ll still have your stars’”(N.P.).

Audio review: Jeannette Walls read this book herself which is appropriate for a memoir.
Audio citation: Walls, J. (2005). The glass castle. [Audio Recording]. Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books.

A professional review:
MSNBC gossip columnist Walls (Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip) wants to set the record straight about her background. Writing from a child’s perspective, she relates the peripatetic lifestyle of her family, brought on by an alcoholic father and an artist mother who feels that rules and discipline hold people back. Neither parent holds a job for long, which forces the family either to skedaddle when the bills mount up or to move in with in-laws. The kids end up having to fend for themselves, endure the teasing of their schoolmates, sleep on cardboard boxes, and scrounge for food. This is an extreme example of a dysfunctional family, and Walls does not shrink from exposing every detail. With one parental relapse after another, the reader begins to wonder how Walls will break out. Finally, she does so by joining her school newspaper and finding her calling, then moving to New York City to pursue it. Walls, who openly expresses her shame and embarrassment about her parents, seems to have written this memoir to forgive herself for hiding her background. While she may be glad to get it off her chest, the reader is none the better for it. For large public libraries only.
Citation for book review: Kaiser, G. (2005). The Glass Castle: A Memoir. Library Journal, 130(3), 141.

Recommendations for library or classroom use:
I would recommend this book to a teen. It is very engaging. Some teens might read it and become aware that they have it pretty good. Other teens might read it and see that it is possible to escape poverty and have the life they have always dreamed of.

Week 3 – Between Shades of Gray by Rita Sepetys

Written by: Ruta Sepetys
APA Citation:  Sepetys, R. (2011). Between shades of gray. New York: Philomel Books.
Cover image: http://www.readingaftermidnight.com/authors/ruta-sepetys/review-between-shades-of-gray.html

Summary of the plot: Lina is living an ordinary life in Lithuania when she and her family are arrested by Soviet officers and sent on a cattle car north of the Arctic Circle to a work camp in Siberia. There they endure terrible conditions including exhausting farm work, freezing cold and food scarcity.

Keywords: Lithuania, Forced labor camps, World War II

My assessment: This book of historical fiction blew me away. I have studied the Holocaust extensively but haven’t ever read about this part of it.  While an entertaining read, the book was also able to delve deeply into the character’s thoughts.

“Was it harder to die, or harder to be the one who survived?” (N.P.).

“Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy—love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit”(N.P.).

Audio review: This novel is well read by Emily Klein.
Audio citation: Sepetys, R. (2011). Between shades of gray. [Audio Recording]. New York: Penguin Audio.

Review from School Library Journal:
Gr 8 Up–This novel is based on extensive research and inspired by the author’s family background. Told by 15-year-old Lina, a Lithuanian teen with penetrating insight and vast artistic ability, it is a gruesome tale of the deportation of Lithuanians to Siberia starting in 1939. During her 12 years there, Lina, a strong, determined character, chronicles her experiences through writings and drawings. She willingly takes chances to communicate with her imprisoned father and to improve her family’s existence in inhuman conditions. Desperation, fear, and the survival instinct motivate many of the characters to make difficult compromises. Andrius, who becomes Lina’s love interest, watches as his mother prostitutes herself with the officers in order to gain food for her son and others. To ward off starvation, many sign untrue confessions of guilt as traitors, thereby accepting 25-year sentences. Those who refuse, like Lina, her younger brother, and their mother, live on meager bread rations given only for the physical work they are able to perform. This is a grim tale of suffering and death, but one that needs telling. Mention is made of some Lithuanians’ collaboration with the Nazis, but for the most part the deportees were simply caught in a political web. Unrelenting sadness permeates this novel, but there are uplifting moments when the resilience of the human spirit and the capacity for compassion take over. This is a gripping story that gives young people a window into a shameful, but likely unfamiliar history.
Source Citation for book review: Steinberg, R. (2011). Between Shades of Gray. School Library Journal, 57(3), 170.

Recommendations for library or classroom use: This book could be used as outside reading for a social studies class. I would also recommend it to teens, both for individual reading and for book clubs.

Image source: http://www.readingaftermidnight.com/authors/ruta-sepetys/review-between-shades-of-gray.html

Week 2 – Looking for Alaska

Written by: John Green
APA citation: Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska. New York: Penguin.
Book cover image: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44640217

My summary of the plot: Miles (Pudge) Halter decides to go to a private school. There he meets “The Colonel” and Alaska. The Colonel and Pudge are roommates and become friends. Pudge experiences his first awkward relationship and also falls in love with Alaska.
Spoiler alert: Alaska is in a world of drama and makes a bad decision to drive one night after drinking alcohol. The rest of the novel deals with the results of this night.

Keywords: Boarding schools, death, religion

My Assessment: This is a stunning debut novel. John Green does not shy away from the tough topics, especially death. It contains many beautiful passages such as this one:

“People, I thought, wanted security. They couldn’t bear the idea of death being a big black nothing, couldn’t bear the thought of their loved ones not existing, and couldn’t even imagine themselves not existing. I finally decided that people believed in an afterlife because they couldn’t bear not to.”

Audio review: This audio book is exceptionally well done. The narrator perfectly captures the different teenage voices.
Citation for audio book: Green, J. (2008). Looking for Alaska. [Audio Recording] Grand Haven, MI: Brilliance Audio

Professional Review: Gr 9 Up– Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter’s adolescence has been one long nonevent–no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends. Seeking what Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps,” he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school’s rich preppies. Chip’s best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love. She is literate, articulate, and beautiful, and she exhibits a reckless combination of adventurous and self-destructive behavior. She and Chip teach Miles to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks. Alaska’s story unfolds in all-night bull sessions, and the depth of her unhappiness becomes obvious. Green’s dialogue is crisp, especially between Miles and Chip. His descriptions and Miles’s inner monologues can be philosophically dense, but are well within the comprehension of sensitive teen readers. The chapters of the novel are headed by a number of days “before” and “after” what readers surmise is Alaska’s suicide. These placeholders sustain the mood of possibility and foreboding, and the story moves methodically to its ambiguous climax. The language and sexual situations are aptly and realistically drawn, but sophisticated in nature. Miles’s narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability. Like Phineas in John Knowles’s A Separate Peace (S & S, 1960), Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends.
Citation for book review: Lewis, J., Jones, T. E., Toth, L., Charnizon, M., Grabarek, D., & Raben, D. (2005). Looking for Alaska. School Library Journal, 51(2), 136.

Recommendation for library or classroom use: I would recommend this book for a 10th-12th grade English class. I would also recommend it for recreational reading for both males an females.

Week 2 – Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Written by: Benjamin Alire Saenz
APA Citation:  Saenz, B.A. (2012) Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Cover image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle_and_Dante_Discover_the_Secrets_of_the_Universe

My Summary of the plot: Aristotle (nicknamed Ari) is a lonely 15 year old Mexican-American growing up in El Paso in the summer of 1987. His much older sisters are grown up and married. His brother is mysteriously absent and his father, suffering PTSD from Vietnam, is very distant. The only person he is close to is his mother. He says, “I was mostly invisible. I think I liked it that way. And then Dante came along”(p. 23). After he meets Dante at the pool the two become good friends. Dante teaches Ari to swim, to read poetry, and to star-gaze among other things.
Spoiler Alert: Dante develops feelings for Ari and eventually Ari returns those feelings.

Keywords: Gay, Latino, Coming of age

My Assessment: This is an important novel because there are very few gay Latino authors writing Young Adult novels. The parents in this book are universally awesome and very supportive of their sons. I’m not sure how realistic that would have been in 1987. Both sets of parents show a lot of affection to each other. Aristotle’s parents like to sit on the porch and hold hands. Ari thinks:

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/35544187/holding-hands (page 140)
While this is a beautifully written book I have a hard time with it because the resolution is so quick at the end of the book. Less than one page remained of the book when they finally admitted that they loved each other. Ari thinks,

“This was what was wrong with me. All this time I had been trying to figure out the secrets of the universe, the secrets of my own body, of my own heart. All of the answers had always been so close and yet I had always fought them without even knowing it. From the minute I’d met Dante, I had fallen in love with him. I just didn’t let myself know it, think it, feel it”(p. 359).

Audio review: This audio book is excellent. The reader perfectly captures the accents and is believable as a teen voice.
Audio citation: Saenz, B.A. (2013). Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe. New York: Simon & Schuster Audio

Review from Library Journal
Read with a convincingly teen-sounding voice by Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, this 1980s-set coming-of-age novel, which was awarded a 2013 Printz Honor, will be a popular addition to YA collections. Both Aristotle and Dante are of Mexican heritage but seem to have little else in common. The boys meet during summer break and help each other discover their place in the world and their identity — ethnic, sexual, and family. Aristotle’s family relationships are complicated, with a brother in prison and older, married sisters. Dante is an only child whose college professor father moves the family to Chicago for a sabbatical. Over time, the teens and their families develop a relationship that deepens through adversity. Aristotle saves Dante’s life. Dante, openly gay, falls in love with Aristotle. VERDICT A thought-provoking read for teens struggling to develop individuality.
Source Citation for book review  Youse, C. (2013). Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Library Journal, 138(12), 43.

Recommendations for library or classroom use:
I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this book for gay teens because so little of it shows a positive relationship. The entire book shows Ari fighting his feelings for Dante. I did hear that Saenz is writing a sequel. Perhaps reading the two books together would change my mind about this.

Fan art

Image from: http://cherryandsisters.tumblr.com/post/106621650894/i-bet-you-could-sometimes-find-all-the-mysteries

 

Week 1 – A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

Written by: Robert Newton Peck
APA citation: Peck, R. N. (1972). A day no pigs would die. New York: Random House.
Peck, R. N. (2010). A day no pigs would die [Audio Recording]. New York: Listening Library.
Book cover image: https://www.rainbowresource.com/viewpict.php?pid=019897

My summary of the plot: This book gets your attention right away. It starts out with the main character saving a calf’s life by pulling it out of its mother. Then he reaches into the mother’s throat to pull out a goiter and saves her life also. Young Robert receives a piglet as thanks from the grateful neighbor. He lives on a farm in Vermont with his parents and aunt. The family is poor but making it until…{Spoiler alert}…the piglet grows up and is barren. The pig eats too much to be kept as a pet and so must be butchered. In an ironic twist of fate, Richard learns that his father is also dying. In a heartbreaking scene, Richard and his father butcher the pig. The end of the novel finds the 13 year old boy arranging his father’s funeral.
Okay. I know that every animal story out there from Charlotte’s Web to Marley and Me ends with the animal dying. But for some reason, I did not see this one coming and it is brutal…and also beautiful.

Keywords: Farm life, Shaker, Fathers and sons

My Assessment:
* I loved this book but it might not be for city slickers or the faint of heart. Kids that grow up on farms know more about the mating, birth, and dying of animals than city kids do.

In one of the most poignant scenes, Robert ends up putting on his father’s clothes as he assumes the role as head of the house. The clothes are ill-fitting and Robert cries out, “Hear me God…It’s hell to be poor”(145).

* Scholastic rated this book as having a 5.5 grade level with a 690 Lexile rating. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/day-no-pigs-would-die#cart/cleanup

 Audio Review: The narration on the audio book was well done. In particular, the father’s voice was very evocative. The narrator’s voice enabled me to vividly imagine the characters.
Citation for audio book: Peck, R. N. (2010). A day no pigs would die [Audio Recording]. New York: Listening Library.

Review from School Library Journal:
Gr 7 Up–Originally published in 1972, Richard Peck‘s (sic) classic about hardscrabble farm life in Vermont and the too early entrance into adulthood for nearly 13-year-old Rob is still relevant today. Matters of life and death are treated in a straightforward manner, and the values shared in the story still ring true. Narrator Lincoln Hoppe gets it just right, from the pure joy of Rob receiving his piglet Pinky as a reward for a neighborly good deed to the heart-wrenching climax. There is a graphic scene involving the mating of Pinky to a neighbor’s boar that could be upsetting to younger children. However, every young adult should be familiar wit
h this poignant, powerful story.–Ann Brownson, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston
Citation for book review: Brownson, Ann. (2011).  A day no pigs would die. School Library Journal, 64.

Recommendations for library or classroom use: Middle school age. It would be most appropriate for small group or individual reading.

 “Need is a weak word. Has nothing to do with what people get. Ain’t what you need that matters. It’s what you do”(120).