Defiance by Valerie Hobbs

Defiance by Valerie Hobbs

Eleven-year-old Toby Steiner wants to do normal things on his vacation. He wants to hike and race his bike down the hill. He wants to learn to fish out on the lake. He doesn't want to return to the children's hospital where his painful cancer treatment finally ended. When Toby starts spending time with Pearl, a spunky old woman who lives on a nearby farm, and Blossom, her broken-down cow, he sees all the more reason to keep the new lump on his side a secret from his parents. From Pearl he discovers the beauty of poetry, and from Blossom he just might uncover the meaning of life.

Valerie Hobbs won the PEN/Norma Klein Prize in 1999, a biennial prize that honors an emerging voice of literary distinction among American children's fiction writers. Defiance, Anything but Ordinary, and The Last Best Days of Summer are among her young adult and middle-grade titles. She has a B.A. in English. as well as a M.A. She holds a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has taught academic writing there. Valerie and her husband live in Santa Barbara, California.