The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry is a classic.  It won the 1994 Newbery Medal b/c it is a deep and though provoking book.  It isn't a long book, which is fabulous for teachers to use in the classroom.  As a school librarian aka teacher librarian, a good book has to be the right length as well as have the good content and excellent writing to be a good book for classroom use.  The Giver is used in almost every middle school I know.  It's such a fabulous book.

I would give The Giver 5 out of 5 stars.  It's clean, deep in meaning, great discussion book, a fast read, great for boys and girls, and I think you could say it was one of the first Dystopian books, but it's not quite a Dystopian book b/c you don't see the chaos that you often see in Dystopian novels.  A community attempts to have a Utopian society, but by doing so it doesn't allow people to feel.  Therefore, they don't have pain, grief, loss, and war, but they also don't have any of the amazing feelings like love and joy.

Barnes and Noble had the following book description:

"Lois Lowry’s The Giver is the quintessential dystopian novel, followed by its remarkable companions, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.

Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives."

If you have not read The Giver you need to.  Go buy it, or check it out from your library today.  We actually just listened to the audiobook version on our latest vacation and it was well read.  

What did you think of The Giver?