I'm hungry but I can't eat. I won't eat. My family tries to lie to me and my brother. My parents say what we find is safe and healthy but I know it's not. Mom and dad always claim it's a wild dog they found on the street or some unfortunate cat. I know the truth. I don't blame them.

We're like vultures, scavenging and fighting over what's been left. They stopped caring for people like us long ago. People who can barely afford a home, not a mansion. People who can only afford regular clothes, not designers. All they care about is themselves — and money.

I feel sorry for the poor soul on my dinner table. He, or maybe she, was probably weak, probably told that they would get real food if they followed my parents. If only he knew. It was like lamb to the slaughter, survival of the fittest. It's either this or the artificial rations the government gives out each month. They hand out barely enough food to last two weeks for a family of four. Regardless, a bite of that artificial filth will put you down faster than a bullet ever could. No one knows what it's even made of.

At first people trusted it. It was all we could get. But then people started to get sick. They got sick and they didn't get better. That's what happened to Nisha. She just fell ill and never recovered. Since then mom and dad refuse to even look at the monthly rations delivered to our door. It reminds them of her, the daughter they couldn't save.

Since then we aren't allowed to touch the rations. We eat only who they bring home for us and even then it's already pre cut and portioned. I don't know where they do it and I don't know how. I just know that they do and that I won't eat it. I refuse to.

Mom likes to pretend I'm just scared to eat after Nisha. Dad likes to pretend we were always a family of four, that Nisha ever existed, that what we eat comes from a farm far away that doesn't process food that kills those who eat it. Cypher lives in ignorant bliss. He has no idea what mom and dad bring home to us. He just knows it's edible and safe — for the most part.

CBC Books asked students to give us a glimpse of the great Canadian novel of the year 2174. They wrote the first page of a book set 150 years in the future, with the protagonist facing an issue that's topical today and set the scene for how it's all playing out in a century and a half.

Two winning entries — one from the Grades 7 to 9 category and one from the Grades 10 to 12 category — will be chosen by middle-grade author Basil Sylvester.

They are the co-author of the middle-grade novel The Fabulous Zed Watson and the recently published second book in the series, Night of the Living Zed.

Both winners will receive a one-year subscription to OwlCrate, which sends fresh boxes of books to young readers across Canada on a monthly basis. In addition, each winners' school libraries will receive 50 free YA books.

Last year's winners were Christian A. Yiouroukis for his story Where the Maple Leaf Grows and Bee Lang for their story One Question.

The winner will be announced on CBC Books on June 12, 2024.