Defiance

by Valerie Hobbs

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Starred Review. Gr 5-7–After finally finishing his painful cancer treatment, Toby Steiner, 11, is spending the summer in a rented cabin with his overprotective mother and weekender dad. Determined not to go back into therapy, he hides from his parents the lump he's discovered on his side. Exploring the countryside on an old bike, he encounters a skinny old cow and its owner, an almost-blind woman whose motto, Whoever steals my freedom takes my life, represents her own defiance over attempts to usurp her independence. Embittered by life, Pearl Rhodes Richardson, 94, is a celebrated poet who has vowed never to write again. She and Toby develop a friendship and find common ground in their resistance to their families' interference in their lives. He helps with chores and reads poetry to her, and the two care for the failing cow whose inevitable death becomes a metaphor for what must be accepted and for what it is not yet time. Defiance turns to decision as each one helps the other face a difficult but hopeful future. An afterword, set several years later, provides a triumphant conclusion for both Toby's and Pearl's stories. Spare, graceful writing, with just enough detail to bring the characters and setting to life, skillfully paces the action and keeps the focus on Toby's conflicted feelings, ultimately celebrating the source of strength he and Pearl become to one another. A quiet, yet resonant story.–Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
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From BookList, August 1, 2005, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Gr. 4-7. Toby's cancer has recurred, but he defiantly determines not to share this information with his parents. The prospect of hospitalization and additional painful treatments are more than the 11-year-old can bear. His decision is reinforced after he meets and befriends a fiercely independent, elderly neighbor, Pearl, once a famous poet who hasn't published for years. Although she is in her 90s and nearly blind, Pearl stubbornly refuses to leave her tumbledown home to live with her daughters. Drawn together by their mutual affection for Pearl's beloved cow, Blossom, these two characters gradually develop a mutually supportive and loving friendship, which, with the death of Blossom as a catalyst, helps them reclaim their lives and a promising future. Occasionally predictable in both plot and characterization, the story is nonetheless emotionally satisfying, and Hobbs, a gifted writer, does a quietly effective job of dramatizing the life-affirming power of both poetry and a cross-generational friendship.
MichaelCart.
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