The Defiant

August 31, 2015
In an unsettling, fablelike debut, six schoolmates, who have little reason to like one another, must work together to survive after they are stranded aboard a centuries-old sailing ship as it drifts aimlessly at sea. Their journey takes a surreal turn when each island they encounter turns out to be populated by other groups of castaway children, each community pursuing a particular obsession. Whether the society is overly focused on democracy, dedicated to technology, or consumed by paranoia, each suffers from an imbalance of priorities that makes it unviable, even dangerous. But as the makeshift crew of the Defiant valiantly searches for safe harbor, they discover much about their own talents and strengths. Quint creates an intriguing satire on the excesses of civilization, as well as a tense adventure in its own right, but the underlying message is hard to glean. The lack of answers regarding the instigating disaster and other paranormal happenings further muddy the narrative. Padula's stylized illustrations portray the characters as almost deformed exaggerations, an unflattering aesthetic, yet one suited to the haunting, puzzling story surrounding them. Ages 8â12.

July 15, 2015
Six students at a San Francisco middle school for misfits become an unlikely crew of seafarers after a disaster. The adventure begins on a field trip to a historic ship called the Defiant. The sky lights up with lightning bolts and a flash of pink, destroying San Francisco as we know it. This seemingly supernatural event sends the students, sans adults, to sea. Gabriel, who lives in a group home, and Esme, who has been living with a neglectful aunt, become de facto group leaders, but as the group learns to fish, sail, stand lookout, and otherwise take care of one another, a palpable sense of family develops. Their journey brings them into contact with several other newly formed groups of kids (whatever the pink flashes were, no adults survived them) ranging in character from an exaggeratedly egalitarian society that would starve before ending a meeting to a group of science award-winners who would rather communicate on Bluetooth-like devices than talk face to face. The pink flashes are never explained, and the ending offers only a little resolution, but the heart of the story is the crew, a diverse group whose interactions and dialogue are sharply insightful and often comic, each of whom grows up appreciably as the story unfolds. A quirky, fast-moving sea odyssey with a diverse and well-realized cast. (Fiction. 10-14)

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