Average Rating
Out of a rare American tradition, sweet as hay, grounded in the gentle austerities of the Book of Shaker, and in the Universal countryman's acceptance of birth, death, and the hard work of wresting a life from the land comes this haunting novel of a Vermont farm boyhood.
In the daily round of his thirteenth year, as the seasons turn and the farm is tended, the boy -- whose time is the only-yesterday of Calvin Coolidge, whose people are the Plain People living without "frills" in the Shaker Way -- becomes a man.
That is all, and it is everything. The boy is mauled by Apron, the neighbor's ailing cow whom he helps, alone, to give birth. The grateful farmer brings him a gift -- a newborn pig. His father at first demurs ("We thank you, Brother Tanner," said Papa, "but it's not the Shaker Way to take frills for being neighborly. All that Robert done was what any farmer would do for another") but is persuaded. Rob keeps the pig, names her, and gives her his devotion ... He wrestles with grammar in the schoolhouse. He hears rumors of sin. He is taken -- at last -- to the Rutland Fair. He broadens his heart to make room even for Baptists. And when his father, who can neither read nor cipher, whose hands are bloodied by his trade, whose wisdom and mastery of country things are bred in the bone, entrusts Rob with his final secret, the boy makes the sacrifice that completes his passage into manhood.
All is told with quiet humor and simplicity. Here are lives lived by earthy reason -- in a novel that, like a hoedown country fiddler's tune, rings at the same time with both poignancy and cheer.
Children's
Fiction
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Most recent 5 reviews out of 5
Submitted by Anonymous in Sinking Spring,
A Day No Pigs Would Die is a wonderful story, full of wisdom and compassion. While it took me a little while to get used to the narrator's voice, the story soon got my attention and kept it. This story teaches about the natural world, a long-lost world of farming, the beauty of family and community family, the value of work and the benefits of having a system of belief--even if it is different that that of those around you. My 10-year-old son was just as caught up in the story as I was, and found humour in it as well as poignancy. The end had us both crying, but also happy that we had gotten to know the author's story.
Submitted by Anonymous
This is a wonderful rendition of an equally wonderful book. The simple Shaker life of New England comes shining through. The narrator really has caught the spirit of Vermont and the time. Well done!
Submitted by Anonymous
After two tries I had no choice, but to stop the cd player and return it immediately for something better. The narrators voice drove me crazy and I just could not get into the story at all.
Submitted by Sandy Munoz in Santa Ana,
My boys and I enjoyed this book. Had me laughing pretty hard. Ending is not quite what I was hoping for. Very well read and entertaining.
Submitted by Anonymous
I could NOT get through this book. I gave up after the 1st CD. The narration is monotone and the writing is uninteresting. I thought the topic alone would carry the book if nothing else. I was wrong.
Genres 
Biographies
