"A well-told story". -- KR. "Peck writes powerfully". -- SLJ. BL, V. 1991. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Gr 7 Up-- Peck picks up the action just minutes from where it ended in Arly (Walker, 1989) as Brother Smith is rowing the boy across Lake Okeechobee to a new life in Moore Haven. The boat capsizes, and Arly is left hanging onto an oar while Brother Smith supposedly drowns. He struggles ashore, only to be captured, branded, and forced into a work gang of migrant pickers. He befriends an old man called Coo Coo, and the two are hauled across the Florida produce fields for the best part of a year before Arly convinces his friend to escape. Things are looking up until the hurricane of 1928 hits; again the hero manages to survive. After more disasters, the book ends as he is once more poised for a better life. The pickers have only numbers, not names, and regularly lie down in the fields and die. The boy clings to the belief that if he can just reach Moore Haven everything will come out right, even though he knows its been wiped out by the storm. Arly is the only character with any depth; the rest are so lightly sketched in as to be more caricatures than characters. And ultimately, he seems more like a pawn in some master's chess game, totally controlled by forces outside himself and content to have it so. Peck writes powerfully, but one wonders how many readers will hang on through the catalog of catastrophe that is Arly's life. --Elaine Fort Weischedel, Turner Free Library, Randolph, MA From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 6-9. Also set in the early part of the nineteenth centrury, Peck's sequel to Arly [BKL Jl 89] begins with the orphaned hero on the run from the Florida work farm where he had lived and worked with his father. Aided by Brother Smith, Arly escapes and sets off across Florida for Moore Haven, where his teacher, Miss Hoe, has arranged for a family to shelter him. After a violent storm separates Arly and Brother Smith, Arly continues his trek alone. Along the way, he's befriended by an alcoholic field hand and meets up with slave catchers and evangelists. When he finally reaches his destination, he is caught in the midst of a hurricane that wipes the town of Moore Haven off the map. Peck's writing is uneven. Some story elements are powerful--the lyrical southern dialect, the terrifying hurricane that nearly costs Arly his life. But the plotting of the journey is flawed. Trip episodes seem foreshortened to the point of artificiality, and the equally abrupt ending, which brings Miss Hoe back into the story, cheats readers who've put their faith in Arly's ability to find his own solutions. But structural flaws aside, teens will find the novel worth reading, if only for Arly's indomitable spirit and the exciting hurricane scene. ~--Randy Meyer From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Robert Newton Peck was born in Vermont on February 17, 1928. The son of hardworking rural people, he was raised on a farm and worked as a lumberjack, in a papermill, killing hogs, and as an advertising executive before the publication of his first book in 1973. He also served as a machine-gunner in the U.S. Army 88th Infantry Division between 1945 and 1947. He received a B.A. degree from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, in 1953, and studied law at Cornell University.

A prolific writer of fiction for young people (Peck has written fifteen books in the last ten years), his work is rooted in the rural tradition of his boyhood. His first book, A Day No Pigs Would Die was named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults in 1973. Soup and Me, his next book, was made into an ABC After School Special. Soup on Ice was honored with the Child Study Association of America children's book of the year citation in 1987. This book also received the Michigan Council of Teachers in 1984.

Peck's book A Day No Pigs Would Die, has been banned by many libraries and schools because of its passage on pig breeding. Yet, despite the controversy the New York Times reported in 1998 that libraries everywhere are featuring special programs and exhibitions calling attention to the banning of books as a threat to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Peck directs the annual Writers Conference at Rollins College.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.