Chapter 12"You slept soundly, Jonas?" his mother asked at the morning meal. "No dreams?" Jonas simply smiled and nodded, not ready to lie, not willing to tell the truth. "I slept very soundly," he said. "I
Chapter 11Jonas felt nothing unusual at first. He felt only the light touch of the old man's hands on his back. He tried to relax, to breathe evenly. The room was absolutely silent, and for a moment Jonas feared that he might disgrace himsel
Chapter 10"I go in here, Jonas," Fiona told him when they reached the front door of the House of the Old after parking their bicycles in the designated area. "I don't know why I'm nervous," she confessed. "I'
Chapter 9Now, for the first time in his twelve years of life, Jonas felt separate, different. He remembered what the Chief Elder had said: that his training would be alone and apart. But his training had not yet begun and already, upon leaving t
Chapter 8The audience was clearly ill at ease. They applauded at the final Assignment; but the applause was piecemeal, no longer a crescendo of united enthusiasm. There were murmurs of confusion. Jonas moved his hands together, clapping, but it
Chapter 7Now Jonas's group had taken a new place in the Auditorium, trading with the new Elevens, so that they sat in the very front, immediately before the stage. They were arranged by their original numbers, the numbers they had been given