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Reviewed by Anna Smith for Readers' Favorite
Provoke Not The Children by Michael W. Anderson is a dystopian story where children are turned over to professionals. These child rearing experts, called Proxies, are tasked with the difficult job of raising and educating the world's youth. They alone know what is best for the child's academic, psychological, social, and physical health. Since they are much better suited to preparing children to receive this care and guaranteeing a healthy child rearing, it becomes mandatory that all children are given over to the Proxies. Since the government regulated that children be turned over to Proxies, regulations need to be enforced. And where there are regulations, you need people to enforce them. Chase Stern is a Proxy Review Officer working with the regulation of the Proxy Industry. His job is to make sure that children are being cared for correctly by the Proxies, and that the Proxies are doing things the way the government intended. But when Chase discovers that not all of the children are being attended to, the secret he unravels threatens the entire system and the country built around it.
Provoke Not The Children is a very interesting sci-fi and dystopian premise that begs the question; what happens to children? I liked the social aspects and questions that Michael W. Anderson raised in this novel - they were so cleverly written. Even though I knew I was reading a fictional story, I felt like I was peeking in on the lives of some very real characters. Who determines what children are worth? The story's turning point is when Chase realizes that the children in poorer and more destitute areas are not being attended to by the Proxies like the wealthier children are. This raises all kinds of class questions. Why are the poorer children being treated differently? Are they somehow less worthy because of who their parents are or where they were born? This story made me question some aspects of our society that I take for granted and don't give a second thought about. If you are still thinking about a story after the last pages are turned, that is the mark of a good book. These were all fascinating questions asked and answered in Michael W. Anderson's unique and very creative science fiction novel.
