Synopsis
Eleven-year-old Toby Steiner, battling cancer, finds inspiration from an old woman and strength from a broken-down cow.
Jennie Dutton - Alan Review
Deceptively simple, Defiance is an exercise in growth. Toby finds another lump in his battle with cancer and befriends a cow and a crazy/sane woman all in the same summer. The title Defiance might come from any number of sources: the poetry the woman has Toby read, the cow's decision about death, Toby's changing relationship with his parents, and Toby's own decision concerning his mortality. This story ranks as a shining example of a gloriously powerful book that will be impossible to book talk to anyone, that will be hard to get in boys' hands, and that will be difficult to get out of girls' minds. 2005, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 116 pp., Ages young adult.