Hallapoosa

by Robert Newton Peck

When his irresponsible younger brother dies in an accident, Hiram MacHugh, a bachelor and justice of the peace of Hallapoosa, Florida, takes in his young niece and nephew

Genres: Fiction

215 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1988

About the author

Robert Newton Peck is an American author of books for young adults. His titles include Soup and A Day No Pigs Would Die. He claims to have been born on February 17, 1928, in Vermont, but has refused to specify where. Similarly, he claims to have graduated from a high school in Texas, which he has also refused to identify. Some sources state that he was born in Nashville, Tennessee (supposedly where his mother was born, though other sources indicate she was born in Ticonderoga, New York, and that Peck, himself, may have been born there). The only reasonably certain Vermont connection is that his father was born in Cornwall.

Peck has written over sixty books including a great book explaining his childhood to becoming a teenager working on the farm called: A Day no Pigs would Die

He was a smart student, although his schooling was cut short by World War II. During and shortly after the conflict, he served as a machine-gunner in the U.S. Army 88th Infantry Division. Upon returning to the United States, he entered Rollins College, graduating in 1953. He then entered Cornell Law School, but never finished his course of study.

Newton married Dorothy Anne Houston and fathered two children, Anne and Christopher. The best man at the wedding and the godfather to the children was Fred Rogers of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood fame.

A Day No Pigs Would Die was his first novel, published in 1972 when he was already 44 years old. From then on he continued his lifelong journey through literature. To date, he has been credited for writing 55 fiction books, 6 nonfiction books, 35 songs, 3 television specials and over a hundred poems.

Several of his historical novels are about Fort Ticonderoga: Fawn, Hang for Treason, The King's Iron.

In 1993, Peck was diagnosed with oral cancer, but survived. As of 2005, he was living in Longwood, Florida, where he has in the past served as the director of the Rollins College Writers Conference. Peck sings in a barbershop quartet, plays ragtime piano, and is an enthusiastic speaker. His hobby is visiting schools, "to turn kids on to books."

—From Wikipedia

For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/robert-n...

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this most inspiring novel (albeit late than never) after downloading it from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. This is so ironic because this service, first began in 1931; the year of this story takes place in!

Hallapoosa is a quaint little town (which only exists in this novel) in Florida whereby two children (a 12-year-old boy named Thane and his sister a 7-year-old girl named Alma Lee) come to live with their aging uncle (Uncle Hiram) after their parents are killed in a traffic accident. Their uncle knows nothing about children, but he is a judge in this quaint old town and a very kind, down to earth man who has all the morals, ethics, humbleness and a kind heart every man should have. The reader soon becomes enraptured by the other characters in this book that get by during the Depression and also with the dilemma of an aging man with a disability and whether or not he will be able to raise two young children. Alma Lee then becomes missing one day and it takes the whole town to look for her. Fear (big and small) is a common theme in this story on the part of the children and the townspeople. Uncle Hiram then finds out that one of the child's parents may not have been killed at all, which adds an additional twist to the story.

I very much enjoyed this sweet inspirational story in a way that takes you back in time whereby, back in the day, folks in small towns lived such a simple lifestyle and whereby and not much happens and the towns themselves are enjoyable to live in, as well as quiet and comfortable. The biggest thing that happens in this novel to give the story some spice is whereby some bootleggers try to kidnap Alma Lee into slavery, and not everything is all that it appears to be. I found this to be a cozy, comfortable and a very much enjoyable read.

[Diane Wachter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hallapoosa, Robert Newton Peck, RDC-M V 4, 1989, 11/89. Novel about a bachelor who inherits his orphaned niece and nephew. Good.