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I confess, when “A Day No Pigs Would Die” by Robert Peck was assigned to be read in the 9th grade, I didn’t bother to read it. I hated reading. I think I still wrote a book report and got an A on the book report, but I never really read the book. I’m compiling a list of books that I’m going to be trying to read as part of my 2009 a-book-per-week project. I’ve decided to put the books I was supposed to read back in high school on the list; so I’ve put A Day No Pigs Would Die on the my books-to-purchase list.

The book is based on the author’s life growing on a farm in Vermont in the 1920s. It’s a coming-of-age story that details events which, based on some of the reviews, offend some sensitive readers. For the most part the book receives a positive rating. Most readers, including grade school children and adults, said they loved the book; but there were a few people who thoroughly hated it, mostly people who objected to the descriptions of scenes involving cruelty to animals.

I suppose I can understand how someone might hate a book or refuse to read a book because it describes things that upset them. I recently read a passage from a book about the holocaust written by a holocaust survivor and the description of the treatment of Jews by the Germans was unbearable to read. Just that one passage was enough for me. I decided not to read the book because it was too much to take; but I wasn’t going to discredit the merits of the book or the author just because I personally found it unbearable to read about the treatment of Jews.

I think the reviews of people who gave A Day No Pigs Would Die the lowest rating possible because they object to animal cruelty should be discounted for lack of objectivity. These people were making a statement to how they feel about cruelty to animals, not to the merits of the book.

Buy A Day No Pigs Would Die