The Declaration

Malley, Gemma. The Declaration. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007.

Annotation: In a world where people chose Longetivity medication to make them live forever new life is illegal, The Declaration bounds people to not having children, those born are Surplus bred to serve Legals. Anna and new Surplus, Peter, decide to escape to the pro-children Underground Movement.

Book Talk:

Anna hates her parents for breaking The Declaration, they knew they weren’t supposed to have children and now she is a burden on society learning how to be an efficient servant to the Legals. She is Surplus Anna living amongst other illegal surplus children hoping to be deemed a Valuable Asset, good enough to work for a Legal until death. Anna wants nothing more than to be a Valuable Asset, until Peter, a new Surplus is brought to Grange Halls. Peter claims to know Anna’s parents. He says they love her and have been searching for her since the Catcher took her from them. Ideas like that are unnatural, but Anna can’t help but believe Peter. If they escape Grange Hall together she can be reunited with her parents and live her life in the Underground Movement as Anna Covey rather than an illegal Surplus Anna, but does she dare do it?

Awards:

Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, 2009

Image credit: http://thebooksmugglers.com

If you liked The Declaration check out the sequel The Resistance!

Watch this video to find out what Gemma Malley thinks about whether or not this can really happen in our the future of our world.