"A Day No Pigs Would Die" is an early book in the development of the adolescent literature genre. It was written during the second generation of young adult literature, so it was able to avoid what young adult novelist Richard Peck described as "an annoying pioneer period that coincided with the late 1960s in which a great many books were pretty cheap propaganda", that disappeared rapidly with the demise of the youth culture of the 1960s. Peck's novel is still being used in classrooms today, over forty years after its initial publication, because it combines aspects of literary form considered suitable for adult consumption with a sophisticated subject matter, making it a high level book that is easily approachable for lower level readers.