Rating: 
Summary: This is a book about a boy becoming a man through "reality"
Review: I've read this book about a hundred times and each time I got something from it. I recommend this book to EVERYONE! If you are a young man, you can learn about respect, honesty, and discipline. If you are a woman, you can get an insight into how a boy becomes a man. It is a priceless work that anyone can enjoy! Outstanding
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Summary: A Pig's Problem
Review: A Day No Pigs Would Die
Robert Newton Peck
B. Masukawa
P.6The book A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck is about a boy named Robert and his family in the town of Learning. Their family owns a farm on an orchid on the outskirts of town. One day Robert helps a cow, which belongs to Mr. Tanner, give birth to two calf's. Robert is rewarded by being given a pig that they decided to call Pinky. From that point on, he raises the pig and watches it grow. Robert goes to the county fair with Pinky and wins a blue ribbon for Best Behaved pig, but when they return from the fair, the father tells Robert that Pinky is barren. Near the end, the father killed the pig because they needed more meat to survive on during the winter. Soon after, the father dies and Robert now has to take care of his mother and aunt.
I hated this book because it was totally pointless. The boy is given a pig that ends to be killed in the end. In the beginning he talks about how important the pig, Pinky is to him. He tells us how the pig was the first thing that he ever owned and it's importance. In the middle of the book, it suddenly doesn't even mention the pig except the parts when Robert is taking food to it. At the end of the book you wonder what was the point of the pig's involvement at all with the boy. All I could ever figure out, was that the pig was an object that Robert got attached to. I think that the point of the story was how Robert had to become a man and take care of himself.
There are certain things in a book that doesn't need to be described. In the beginning, it describes in detail how a cow's legs is swollen and dripping with blood as she is giving birth to her calf. While the cow is giving birth to her calf " That devil cow ran down that ridge with my arm in her mouth, and dragging me half-naked with her." While the father is slaughtering the pig "Her blood gushed out in heaving floods around our ankles," this quote almost made me throw up. After the father killed Pinky, Robert kissed his hand that was soaked with pig blood until some of it got into his mouth. I understand that the author was trying to tell me what the difficulties of a farm were and what the livestock go through, but the descriptions were unnecessary.
My least favorite part of the book is when Ira long brings along a good-natured female dog to Robert's fathers' farm. Ira brought his dog along because he wants to make it fight a weasel. The whole point to the fight is to make the dog into a weasel dog so after it will ripe apart any weasel in her sight. At the end of the fight, the dog bites its' owner with deep disgust. Her paw was now only a stump with a bone splintered at the end. Her ear was also torn off and was in a stage of extreme pain. I understand why this event took place, but didn't understand why farmers didn't think of what the outcome of the fight would do to the dog's well-being. What was even worse was that she was forced into something that she knew would risk her life. After I read this chapter I thought that the farmers were incredibly stupid.
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Summary: A Day No Pigs would Die
Review: I liked the book "A Day No Pigs Would Die". It was a real life situation that I enjoyed reading about. The book is about a Shaker boy named Rob and his pet pig, Pinky. The book was really easy to relate to. Rob has to go through things that I can understand. He goes through loss and many hardships and has to take on many adult responsibilities. This book helped me to see things through the eyes of other people. It makes me realize how spoiled I am. Rob is a Shaker, which means they are very simple people. They don't have much, which is why Robert's pig is so special to him. "A frill. And in a Shaker household there wasn't anything as evil as a frill." I have a houseful of "frills" and Rob doesn't have any. I also enjoyed the humor in the book. There were many funny little stories. I think the funniest part of the book is when Rob goes to Rutland with his neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Tanner. Robs innocence adds much of the humor to the book. Especially when Rob thinks that a tutor is a musical instrument called a "tooter". I would recommend this book to people of all ages who are looking for a good laugh and a good book.
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Summary: ONE OF MY FAVORITE COMING OF AGE NOVELS
Review: Read this one for the first time in 1979 and have read it at least twice since then. The writing is wonderful and the story great. I am not all that sure I would let just any small child read this one, as our society has changed so much over the past few years, I am afraid that many could not relate nor understand the circumstances of the people populating this story. It does touch on some subjects that many might find offensive, i.e. killing game and eating it, butchering livesock on the farm for food, etc. and, gasp, it does touch on sexuality somewhat. Admittedly, somewhat crudely, but it must be remembered when and where the story took place. On the other hand, it might be good for some of our young ones to get a glimps of just how things were. Time was when our meat was not packaged in plastic and the animal was not killed in a factory setting far from our sight. This book actually does a pretty good job of that. All in all, recommend this one highly.
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Summary: What a book
Review: The book A Day No Pig Would Die written, by Robert Newton Peck is a must read book. As I was reading this book it shows how a boy (Robert peck) values a pig given to him by his neighbor (Mr. Tanner). He names the pig Pinky. He got Pinky as a reward. What did he do? As you read the book you will discover shocking events. What are they? Read and find out. This book is for all ages but if you like action, adventure, or sci-fi, this book might not be for you but try to. I recommend this book for people to read. Read the book to discover what happens as the relation between Robert and Pinky grow closer.
Rating: 
Summary: Violent and crude
Review: Enticed by the phrase on the cover - "a modern classic!" - I picked up this book expecting to find a pleasant "coming of age" story. What I got was something quite different.
The narrarator, Robert Peck, is a 12-year boy old in Vermont, living a Shaker life and helping his father on the family farm. The story does follow his passage from boyhood to manhood, but the way it does so is what I found troubling.
For one, there is a serious disrespect for animals and nature in the story. The narrarator talks about catching bullfrogs to eat their legs, shoots squirrels so his mother can use the squirrel's digested food (nuts) to sprinkle on their cake, helps his neighbor to subject a dog to a "death match" with a weasel, and worst of all, assists his father in killing his own pet so the family can eat it! I know of no child that would kill or eat his pet, and I know of no father that would actually think of such a thing. Just ridiculous.
On top of this, there were sexual innuendos and references made in the story, which I can't see having any place in a book for young adults. The suggestion that a widowed neighbor who had been mean to people "is some improved" now that a handyman was around is patently offensive.
I don't know how much of the story is autobiographical, as the book is defined as a novel. But the author uses his own name for the boy in the story, and his father's name and profession for the father in the story. And the story is set in Vermont, where the author grew up. I sincerely hope much of this book was fictitious; if not, Robert Peck had an absoultely horrible childhood, and certainly not one to be remembered fondly.
What a disappointment. I gave it 1 star because I had to give it at least 1.
Rating:
Summary: Inappropriate for kids
Review: This book is disgusting. The fact that it's foisted upon 6th graders is a real curiousity to me. My daughter was forced to read this book when she was 11 and could barely make it through. The teacher seemed to delight in her uncomfortableness with the book. I may be old fashioned, but this is not an appropriate coming of age book for children. The sex and the violence are just too graphic! If you have a sensitive child avoid this book if you can. If your teacher assigns it pen her down on what redeeming value it has.
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Summary: Best book I read in school.
Review: In 5th grade this book was required reading in my English class. It has stuck with me the rest of my years. The story line was fantastic. It is deffinitly a "growing up" book about a boy, his family, life on a farm, and pigs. A MUST read for every young boy and girl!
Rating: 
Summary: A Day No Pigs Would Die.
Review: This is a wonderful book. Nothing more, nothing less. Simply told in keeping with it's Shaker characters, you almost get the impression that not much is happening and the narrator is just rambling. At the book's conclusion though, you realize that so very much has happened, and the lessons this book teaches young (and not so young) readers are quiet and powerful. The slow and pastoral pace of this short novel may not lend itself to the tastes of young readers today, but it's an easy read and an effort richly rewarded. This book is one of the few that has actually moved me to tears, not because of any overbearing sentimentality, but through its matter-of-fact honesty. Highly recommended.
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