Bibilography
Peck, Robert Newton. 1972. A Day No Pigs Would Die. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
ISBN 0-697-85306-5
Plot Summary
A twelve year old Shaker farmboy living in rural Vermont during the 1920s comes of age and learns how to take care of a pig and run the family farm.
Critical Analysis
This is a historical fictional novel loosely based on Robert Peck's childhood. The main characters of the story are well developed. The protagonist is a twelve year old boy, Robert Peck. He is attending school and completes his daily chores helping his family tend to their farm. Haven Peck, Robert's father is a hard worker and a simple man. He is a pig butcher by day to earn money to pay for his land but believes his family is rich because they are " ...not worldly people" and they "...suffer the less for not paining for worldly wants and wishes." The relationship between father and son is strong. Haven is a simple man and wants what is best for his family based on his Shaker beliefs and he wants Robert to have a better life by going to school and learning how to be a man to take care of the farm and his family. He doesn't shield Robert from the harsh realities of life and he shows Robert his love for him with his own small gestures that Robert understands.
The novel begins with Robert helping his neighbor's cow give birth to two bull calves. In appreciation for his deed, Mr. Tanner gives him a piglet. Robert names the pig Pinky and raises her to be a sow pig. Mr. Tanner invites him to the county fair to help him show the bull calves and pig. Pinky wins a ribbon. Up to this point the story is reminiscent of E.B. Whites "Charlotte's Web". Robert loves his pig and talks to her and sleeps with her. Unfortunately this is a story about the harsh realities of growing up in poverty during the 1920's. Pinky is sterile and the family falls on hard times and Robert must learn how to run the farm and be a man. His father tells him that 'It's just doing what's got to be done" and Robert has to help his father butcher his beloved pig to help feed his family. Robert's father passess away and Robert is now the man of the family at the tender age of thirteen.
Young readers today will be drawn in with the adventurous beginning when Robert is helping his neighbor's cow give birth and saving her life. Also the fact that this book has been challenged due to its very descriptive scences involving the mating and killing of a pig will make young readers want to read the book.
The dialogue between the characters is simple and different than the language we use today and may turn some readers off. But the strong characterization will hook readers into empathizing with Robert as he goes through the trials and tribulations of growing up on a farm in rural Vermont during the 1920s.
Awards
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year- 1973
Library of Congress Children's Books of the Year-1973
Colorado Children's Book Award-1972
ALA Best Books for Young Adults-1973
Review Excerpts
"A lovely book...Honest, moving, homely in the warm and simple sense of the word....It is small, accepting and loving and it succeeds, perfectly."--Boston Globe
"You'll find yourself caught up in the novel's emotion from the very opening scene...love suffuses every page."--New York Times
Bibiliography
Canales, Viola. 2005. The Tequila Worm. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN 0-85-74674-1
Plot Summary
Sofia is a young Mexican-American teenage girl growing up in the barrio in McAllen Texas. Her family is very close and tight. She earns a scholarship to a private Episcopal boarding school in Austin, Texas. Her experiences with her family and at the St. Luke's boarding school helps shape who she is and the relationships with her family, cousins and comadres.
Critical Analysis
The novel is written in first person, the narrator is Sofia, a young Mexican American girl growing up in the barrios of McAllen, Texas. Although her family is poor, they are rich in love, loyalty and tradition. The novel opens up with Sofia describing Doña Clara, a storyteller who introduces the reader to the the characters of the book, the important people in Sofia's life.
The novel continues with a few short humorous chapters about important events in Sofia's life leading up to heart of the novel, Sofia's opportunity to go to a private boarding school in Austin Texas. Sofia is a studious girl and wants to go on a new adventure and "....to see what's out there..." and go to college, make money and become a lawyer. Sofia is conflicted because she wants to stay with her family and learn to be a commadre but she also wants something different for her life that she will not be able to get living in the barrio. The decision to attend the school is not Sofia's alone, her whole family discusses it and involve her godmother, aunts and her mother's commadres.
Sofia does go to school in Austin and experiences some racism and learns to connect to her family by writing stories about them and letters to them and her best friend, cousin and commadre Berta. Sofia excels in school and goes on to Harvard and law school. Inspired by stories told to her in her youth and the memories of her life there, Sofia builds a little plaza as a way to give back to the community that nutured her and to bring back those rituals and experiences to the people who live there now.
Maggie Hommel wrote in her review for Bulliten of the Center for Children's Books "...the novel is notable for its positive portrayal of a close-knit Mexican-American family in which a young Latina uses her brains to get ahead while never losing sight of her heritage." Indeed this story is a positive portrayal of a Mexican American girl, her family and her culture. The book has many cultural markers that make it distinctive to Mexican Americans in South Texas. The text is sprinkled with words in Spanish, the celebration of the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, cascarones, quinceñeras, eating the tequila worm, cleaning beans, eating tacos and pan dulce.
The begining of the novel seemed more like vignettes but soon the stories all tie together to show how each experience shaped who Sofia was and how those experiences influenced her life. Sofia is a strong character who knows what she wants and loves her family deeply. Young teenage girls would enjoy reading this book but I'm not so sure boys would really care to read it.
Awards
Pura Belpré Award for Narrative 2006
Booklist Top 10 First Novel for Youth-2005
Notable Children's Books for Older Readers: Association for Library Services to Children-2006
Review Reference
The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books v. 59 no. 2 (October 2005) p. 76, reviewer Maggie Hommel
Bibliography
Christopher, Lucy. 2010. Stolen. New York: Chicken House. ISBN 978-0-545-17093-2
Plot Summary
Gemma is a British sixteen year old girl who is kidnapped at the airport in Bangcok and taken to the Australian Outback. During her time with her captor, Ty, she attempts to escape several times but fails. She gets to know Ty and learns that despite his heinous act, he is human and has some good in his heart.
Critical Analyis
Gemma is writing a letter to Ty. She begins from the moment she first saw him to the the farewell she needs to tell him to begin her healing. The book is written as a second person narrative in the past tense from the viewpoint of Gemma. The style is different and unique but can get old at times because of all the you's written to describe what Ty had done and said. But the plot is what kept me reading. It is a story of survival and twisted love. I wanted to know what Ty did to Gemma and how she will ultimately get away from him. Despite the despicable act Ty had done by kidnapping Gemma the reader can see how Gemma slowly starts to view her captor as a human being, how he truly loved her in his own distorted ways.
"[This is] an interesting book for examining what obsessive Twilight-style approaches to love can mean in a real-life context—but it's all the sadder for its recognition that there's more to Ty than his crime, and yet ultimately that's the only thing that can be allowed to matter to Gemma or the world." writes Deborah Stevenson for the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. This book gives the reader a glimpse into Stockholm syndrome and all the fear, trauma, anxiety and confusion that a victim can go through.
Awards
Gold Inky Award (Australia)-2010
Printz Honor Book-2011
Southern Schools Book Award (South England) 2010
Review References
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books v. 63 no. 10 (June 2010) p. 424-5, reviewer Stevenson, Deborah
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