Product Description

When Jonas turns 12, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver--who alone holds memories of pain and pleasure in life. Now there can be no turning back from the truth. Paperback.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #229 in Books
• Brand: INGRAM BOOK & DISTRIBUTOR
• Published on: 2002-09-10
• Released on: 2002-09-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• Made with the Best Quality Material with your child in mind.
• Top Quality Children's Item.

Amazon.com
In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of Brave New World, in this 1994 Newbery Medal winner, Lowry examines the idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to create a more stable society. Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the price.

From Publishers Weekly
Winner of the 1994 Newbery Medal, this thought-provoking novel centers on a 12-year-old boy's gradual disillusionment with an outwardly utopian futuristic society; in a starred review, PW said, "Lowry is once again in top form... unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers." Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-- In a complete departure from her other novels, Lowry has written an intriguing story set in a society that is uniformly run by a Committee of Elders. Twelve-year-old Jonas's confidence in his comfortable "normal" existence as a member of this well-ordered community is shaken when he is assigned his life's work as the Receiver. The Giver, who passes on to Jonas the burden of being the holder for the community of all memory "back and back and back," teaches him the cost of living in an environment that is "without color, pain, or past." The tension leading up to the Ceremony, in which children are promoted not to another grade but to another stage in their life, and the drama and responsibility of the sessions with The Giver are gripping. The final flight for survival is as riveting as it is inevitable. The author makes real abstract concepts, such as the meaning of a life in which there are virtually no choices to be made and no experiences with deep feelings. This tightly plotted story and its believable characters will stay with readers for a long time. --Amy Kellman, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Superb book for young people
As a teacher of learning disabled students...I can say that all of my pupils loved this book. Some of the ideas might need a bit of explaining, but it is a story that kids can really get into.

As Heller said, "the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow..."
It's a bit difficult to put into words how I felt about Lowry's The Giver. The first thing that came to mind and just wouldn't go away is "horrific". And though one can't really be caught surprised with the unfolding of events since Lowry, as a measure of her skill as a storyteller, quite expertly built up the climax, there's still a part of me that kept thinking, "Surely it wouldn't be so bad..."

Of course, it was inevitable that this seemingly eerily perfect world she created would topple. And it was all brought about by the power of memories and one's yearning for love. It made me realize that I've never felt so perplexed and awed by a story in a long while.

Certainly dialectic and begging for a multitude of interpretations, The Giver is another one of those worthy reads that dared to explore, among other things, the boundaries of threshold a person can reach, along with one's capacity to break free of bonds just to truly realize what it is to be human.

Controversial!
The reviews of The Giver are absolutely hilarious. People, this is a book marketed to young adults; don't let it kick you around. The author, Lois Lowry, expects the reader to make inferences at certain points throughout the novel. You are going to have to turn your brain on and do a little teeny tiny bit of thinking. But that's okay! Just take a deep breath and try to remain calm. You will make it out alive, trust me.

Seriously, the reader response to this book is almost as fascinating as the book itself. When the adults responding here are not complaining about The Giver being hard to understand, they are objecting to its violent content. Isn't that a little like saying our government's anti-drug commercials are too shocking for TV? When authors write about totalitarian societies, they usually try to frighten the reader into guarding against the emergence of such horrors in real life. It's ironic how the reviewers here, in their responses, betray the habit of being spoon fed their truth in much the same way as the characters in this novel. The members of Jonas' community cannot think for themselves, and the reviewers of this book can't even puzzle out the climax. Not only that, but their aversion to The Giver's violent content is exactly the kind of attitude that would lead to a safety-obsessed world like the one Lowry envisioned.

I'm awarding The Giver three stars. It's an overall decent dystopian novel, but it's flawed in that it doesn't stand out as particularly memorable. A story like Animal Farm, by contrast, sticks with you for the rest of your life. Authors who write about totalitarianism probably want to make a deep impact on their audience and drive home a message. If the message doesn't stick, the book is a failure (at least to a degree). Nevertheless, all in all The Giver is a worthwhile read for all age groups.