Defiance - Softcover

Hobbs, Valerie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312535813 ISBN 13: 9780312535810

Publisher: Square Fish, 2009

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Valerie Hobbs is the author of Sheep, Defiance, and several other middle grade and young adult novels. She is known for her finely tuned realism and memorable characters. She lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Defiance

By Hobbs, Valerie

Square Fish

Copyright © 2009 Hobbs, Valerie
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780312535810
On the third morning after they’d settled into the cabin, Toby had felt it again. It was in the same spot on his right side, a slippery marble. He’d jumped out of bed and hurried into his clothes, covering it up.
     His mom had been standing at the little kitchen sink sipping her coffee. There were purple shadows under her eyes. “Sleep all right, honey?”
     “Sure.”
     She looked out the window. “It’s going to be hot today. Did you pack your trunks?”
     “My trunks?” Was he hearing right? The lake was off-limits, wasn’t it?
     “I thought you could help me for a while in the garden,” she said. “Then we could . . . Oh, I don’t know . . .” Her smile was lopsided, as if she was out of practice. “Run through the sprinkler to cool off! Or are you too old for that?”
     “I’m eleven, Mom,” he said. “Jeez!” Run through the sprinkler? Was she nuts? And anyway, he did have his trunks. He just couldn’t wear them. Or she would see. Her eagle eyes would go straight to the marble and he would be back at Children’s Hospital in no time flat. She would call an ambulance. Or get a helicopter. Only he wasn’t going to do all that again. He wasn’t going to puke up his guts over and over while his mother held his head. He wasn’t going to miss school and lose what few friends he had left. He wasn’t going to make new friends with kids who disappeared. It would be the biggest lie he’d ever told, and he would tell it over and over again whenever she asked him how he was, no matter how bad it made him feel.
     “Fine,” he’d tell her. “I’m fine.”

Continues...

Excerpted from Defiance by Hobbs, Valerie Copyright © 2009 by Hobbs, Valerie. Excerpted by permission.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Square Fish
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312535813
• ISBN 13: 9780312535810
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144