Pinky's Fate

We are reading the last two Chapters of “A Day No Pigs Would Die” today. Ben and I are convinced that Haven Peck will not survive until the end of the book. We are less certain about Pinky. Before reading, I would like Ben to contemplate three different endings:

• The Hollywood ‘Feel Good’ ending
• The ‘Cold Harsh Realities of Life’ ending
• The ‘somewhere in the middle with a glimmer of hope’ ending

After briefly describing each, choose the one you think is most likely.

Foreshadowing

(Kris asked the following as a response to the last post. I have elevated it to a post of its own.)

Foreshadowing is a literary term. Can you figure out what it means?

Why does an author foreshadow?

Once you understand it, can you equate it to the way that tv or movies would use it?

Next, can you trace back and find evidence of foreshadowing in the novel? What event does it relate to? How is it being shown?

Brutal

Ben and I read chapter 11 yesterday and chapter 12 today. I am glad that we only read one each day since they were quite brutal.

Which of the following would be worse?

1. Watching a Dog get weaseled.
2. Hearing that your father tell you that he thinks he will die soon.
3. Eating chocolate cake with a topping of nuts pulled from a squirrel pouch?

To make matters worse, he has the prospect of a possibly barren brood sow / friend becoming another customer of his father’s services.

Let’s focus on the question of friend/pet versus food. How would you describe Haven Peck’s feelings about animals (farm and wild)?
(Does Haven Peck get joy from slaughtering pigs? If Pinky does prove to be barren, how do you think Haven would feel about killing her? We got a look into Haven’s mind as he talked to Robert after the ‘weaseling’ – what does that tell us about him? Do we – those of us that consume meat anyway – have something to learn from Haven’s attitude toward animals? )

Eye Opener

Ben and I were talking about Robert's trip to the Rutland Fair. I suggested that this must have been quite an eye opening experience for him. It gave him access to a whole new world of possibilities.

Ben, can you write a couple of paragraphs about an eye opening experience that you have had? (I asked Ben to make some modifications to his initial post. They appear in order as comments.)

Small World

Ben and I read Chapters 9 & 10 today. I am finding this a more interesting read then I had first anticipated. Sophisticated is probably the wrong word, but this book certainly does not pander to a young reader audience. He writes of mature themes (i.e. Chapter 9’s conversation between Aunt Carrie & Lucy Peck regarding the neighbor’s love life) that kids could not be expected to fully understand. Some of the humor is subtle, and background knowledge that the book does not provide is required to fully understand some extended passages (i.e. Ethan Allen and Abner Doubleday.) When the difficult language is added in, he is really challenging his readers – or maybe he just wrote the book he wanted to write without much regard for who the audience was. What do you think?

As Robert headed off to the fair in Chapter 10, I thought about how small his world was. If he did not go to school then he would rarely see anyone outside his family. He could conceivably spend have spent entire life without traveling further then Learning. (Do you think the town name was a message from the Author? I do not find it on a Vermont map.) When contrasted with the world that Ben lives in today it is hard to imagine what Robert’s life was like or how he viewed the future.

Do you think he stopped to rest and look for perverts before heading home to show off his Blue Ribbon?

Memory

Ben and I read chapters 7 & 8 today. This book is a challenging read for Ben. He is confused by the period speaking but to his credit he is working to understand what is going on. We continue to use a highlighter for phrases and terms that are interesting or difficult to understand. Ben’s highlights are a 50/50 mix of those.

There was quite a contrast in today’s reading. Chapter 7 was a tale of a carefree night in the countryside – albeit with the untimely death of a rabbit. We read Chapter 8 aloud together at my suggestion because the first time I read it I did not understand it and I guessed Ben would have the same issue. A key paragraph that explained the reason that a man was digging up the coffin of his infant child on a rainy night was easy to miss.

After reading this chapter I was wondering how autobiographical this book is. The fact that the author uses his family’s names seems to indicate that the book is based on his life, but the foreword to the book does not make it clear. I was thinking about Robert Peck writing this chapter as an adult and calling on a very powerful memory that must have been quite frightening at the time.

Do you have any childhood memory that would fit into this category? (Clearly this is a harder question for a 7th grader to answer but give it a try nonetheless, Ben.)

Tootered

Chapters 5 and 6 gave us more insight into Roberts’s daily life. We thought his chapter 5 trip into the countryside with Pinky sounded like a fun day to contrast his normal hard working life. We got a good laugh from his interpretation of a ‘Tutor’ (which demonstrated that he clearly needed one according to Ben.) Not to say he is not very bright, but how did he manage all of those other ‘A’s?

We have not seen many clues yet as to where the story is going – or maybe they were there and we just failed to recognize them. (?)

The Author has an interesting way of adding historical information. He presents it from the point of view of Robert – which it would seem is rather far from the ‘truth’ (i.e. Ethan Allen & Roberts namesake Robert Rogers). The interesting thing is that in researching the history of these characters (and Abner Doubleday) I found that the conventional wisdom (what we have been taught) is probably not very accurate either.

As Kris said in her note regarding the last post, there are some clear contradictions to the traditional Shaker Lifestyle here. I wonder if it was common as the colonies came apart for former residents to take some pieces of the faith with them while embracing other things in the non-shaker world. Or is it possible that there were always people living around the colony that embraced many principals of the faith and worshiped with them but did not become part of the colony? (The PBS video indicated that outsiders came for the worship.)

Background Knowledge

Ben and I read and listened to the 3rd and 4th chapters today. There was a lot going on – some of it subtle or requiring background knowledge to understand. We had to do some research on Ethan Allen and Abner Doubleday to understand the humor that the Author was presenting in Chapter 4.

Yesterday we had watched a PBS Ken Burns documentary on the Shakers. (It was produced in 1988 when 10 Shakers remained. I believe only one is still alive today.) That video helped us to understand Haven’s Peck’s reaction to Mr. Tanner giving Robert the pig, as well as the discussion of ‘Frills’.

Based on the dates of the Calvin Coolidge presidency, we were able to narrow the time frame for the story to the mid to late 1920’s. What was the state of the Shaker community at that time?

Read / Listen / Compare

Ben and I listened to the second chapter of the book today. We read along with a highlighter in hand, marking interesting phrases, terms we did not understand, and other important information. After the chapter was over we switched highlighters (different colors) and then went back and compared what we had chosen (and highlighted things the unique things the other person had selected).

We have decided that in the future we will first read the book , then go back and listen to it. There are 13 chapters remaining. We would like to cover two chapters each time we read. We want to finish the book by Thanksgiving.

We decided to add a ‘Phrases’ and ‘Words’ section to the sidebars to note the things we noticed while reading.

Monday we are going to explore the Shakers a bit and read again on Tuesday.

As we discussed today’s reading we talked about the time setting. Ben offered, “it is good to look back to compare (how we are living today).”

Sin on Sunday

Ben and I started a new book this week – “A Day No Pigs Would Die” by Robert Newton Peck. I had some trepidation about getting started after reading the first chapter which includes a rather grisly account of the birth of a calf.

I purchased the book on tape, so Ben and I listened to the first chapter together yesterday. Normally he is a bit squeamish but he did not seem too disturbed – even when the main character reached his hand into the cow’s throat because it was choking. He cleared the obstruction – and in a show of thanks the cow clamped down on his arm and took him for a romp through the thorn bushes. Did I mention he did not have his pants on?

I enjoyed a few turns of phrase in this first person account of the Author’s childhood in Vermont:

• He described getting a hold of the half born calves head by saying he ‘got a purchase on him’.
• ‘I was feathered if I…’ was his way of saying ‘No way was I …’.
• He described not letting go of something as ‘hanging on to wait Christmas’.

Ben’s favorite was when he described someone as being ‘as wrong as sin on Sunday’.

There are many gaps that have to be filled in before we have know the basics. We will read and listen to Chapter 2 tomorrow.

Can you think of any statements we use in conversation that might sound as funny in the future as 'wrong as sin on Sunday’ does today?

Moving On

Before moving on to A Day No Pigs Would Die, a few things from Hollis:

Essential Questions:
1. How do you know when to trust someone, including yourself?
2. When do people deserve second chances?
3. Who is it hardest to forgive- yourself, or others?
4. How do you know when you can depend on yourself or others?
5. How does fear change the way we view situations?

Main Characters:
Hollis Woods
Josie Cahill
Steven Regan
Old Man Regan
Izzy Regan
Beatrice