Chapters 1+2: Introduction to the book

I have read the first two chapters of the book now and want to give you a overview about what happened there. It is a mix of my first impressions and a summary.

At first I noticed the dedication: “For all the children to whom we entrust the future”. The author, Lois Lowry, doesn't say “thank you” to special persons who might have helped her or have given her inspiration to write the book. It's more like she wants to say for who she has written the book: for the children →and the first chapter starts with the eleven-year-old child Jonas. At the beginning he seems to be very confused and doesn't know how he feels. Instead of saying what makes him feeling like that he starts to tell stories from his past: about an aircraft which flew very close above his head and about his best friend Asher who has problems with grammar and being on time. Shortly before he gets home he finds a word that express his feelings good “apprehensive”. At home he talks with his family (mother, father and sister Lily) about how he feels about the day. There the reader gets to know why Jonas is apprehensive. He is worried about a Ceremony which he has to hold in December. There are no further explanations about what it will be like but that all the people from year zero to twelve have this every year and that this will be the last one for Jonas. After that he gets a job from the Elders (they are something like the legislators there)attached. He is worried that he won't like it and doesn't have any longer time to be a child but his father tells him that everything will be all right.

Even though Jonas is eleven years old and his sister is seven, I think it is a little bit strange to sit down with your family every evening and talk about your feelings. That was the first time when I started to recognize that Jonas doesn't live in the same culture than we do. Another thing that boosts this impression is that they don't speak about their ages like we do. Instead that he just says “My sister is just seven years old”, he says something like “My sister is only a Seven”. They also have a different style to count the years: all the babies who are born in the time between the first January and December within a year, gets in this December a One. And Jonas' mother tells that after their twelfth birthday they age doesn't count for them at all.

Another strange thing is that they can release people out of their community and that this is the worst thing that can happen to them. Moreover they are only allowed to have two children: a boy and a girl.

I think until now the book is easy to understand but I am not that sure wether I like that story or not.