Malley: The Declaration
January 6th, 2010 by Alison
- Malley: The Declaration
The Declaration
A book I recently read was “The Declaration” written by Gemma Malley. I really enjoyed this book because the author uses great language to describe people’s thoughts and feelings. It also has an interesting storyline and is happy in some places and sad in others.
This book is told in the future and is about a 14 year old girl named Anna who lives in a Surplus hall and is treated terribly. Surpluses are children who are not allowed to be born and live Surplus halls. In this story the Hall is called Grange Hall and the boys and girls are treated very badly, made to work, are fed rarely and are told daily, by their house matron, how useless they are. But for Anna, everything changes one day when a boy named Peter comes to Grange Hall and begins to tell her things about her family and how they want her back. She doesn’t believe him at first because she thinks her parents are criminals and should be in jail but over time she begins to listen to him and learn things about her family that she never knew before.
I would recommend this book because the story line was very gripping and it made me want to keep turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next. I also liked it because when you thought things were going to work out well for Anna, something would come in the way and I made me want to read on.
By Orla (St. Ninians High School)
By Orla (St. Ninians High School)
I enjoyed The Declaration by Gemma Malley because it kept me in suspense, particularly in the last few chapters. Every 2 or 3 paragraphs, the book would jump to a different person. The characters are believable and very well portrayed.
The story is set in the future, in the year, 2140. A ‘longevity’ drug has been invented so that people can live for ever. However, if everyone took the dug and had children, the population would be too big. So, to have children, you have to ‘Opt Out’ from the drug and you are permitted to have children.
Anna’s parents are part of the ‘Underground Society’, a group of people who don’t agree with the declaration (the law which states that you can’t have children and take Longevity). They have Anna illegally and hide her. When she was found, they took her to a Surplus Hall for Illegal Children. They are trained to work and then employed by legal people. But when a boy named Peter comes to the Surplus Hall and tells Anna about the outside world and about her parents - who Mrs. Pincent, the House Matron has told her are evil for breaking the declaration – Anna isn’t sure what to believe…
By Kayleigh (St Ninians High School)