Robert Newton Peck's first book, A Day No Pigs Would Die, won several book awards and secured its author a long career in young-adult fiction. This 1972 debut and Peck's subsequent works portray a rural America in which hard work, self-sufficiency, and the importance of education are predominant. Usually set in Vermont or Florida, Peck's stories reflect the influence of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, especially so in Peck's humorous set of books based on the character "Soup." But Peck's works also engage serious themes, portraying adolescents in their struggles on the cusp of adulthood in such titles as A Day No Pigs Would Die and its 1994 sequel, A Part of the Sky, and in Millie's Boy, Justice Lion, Spanish Hoof, Arly, and Arly's Run. Teachers often find a place in Peck's fiction, serving as supporting and life-affirming role models, as in Mr. Little.

Born in 1928, Peck was the seventh...