The Declaration by Gemma Malley

by Miss Semmens

Imagine a future where people can live forever. Amazing, you'd think, but what about over-population?
This is the world we come across in The Declaration. This future world has solved the problem by not letting people have children, but like all rules this one was made to be broken. Anna Covey is one of the 'surplus' who has grown up in an orphanage where she's been programmed to think she is the one who's wrong, that her parents were selfish and that she is the result of their selfishness. Anna is keen to be the best surplus she can be, which means life as a servant serving one of the non-agers. But all of a sudden Anna's world is rocked by a new arrival to the grange, a boy who claims it's the rule that's wrong, not them and completely blows apart Anna's world. Will she have the courage to abandon all her beliefs?