» posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 9:41 am by Mrs. C
“The Giver” by Lois Lowry
Grade Level: 5-6 | AR Points: 7.0
The Giver - Lois Lowry
This Newbery Medal winning book is, what I would call, a unique utopian novel. Unique in the fact that it is one of the few for children and seems to defend the society to a degree.
Imagine the perfect society: no pain, no crime, no unhappiness, everybody has an assigned purpose. This is called Sameness. Children in Jonas’ perfect society are assigned their life assignments at the Ceremony of Twelve. This assignment is to be their job for their life, no changing jobs, or wanting to be something different. Jonas is awed to find out he has been chosen to be the Receiver of Memories, a position of honor held by only one person at a time.
Now that Jonas is the Receiver, he must now be trained by the previous Receiver who is now called the Giver. The giver transfers memories of past events, before Sameness was implemented – horrible memories of war, hunger and disease that the community has no idea of. He also gains memories of color, weather, exhileration, extreme sadness, hate and other strong emotions.
Based upon what Jonas has learned, he is forced to make a decision that may destroy their society.
This book is thought provoking and is great for class or family discussions. The ending is wide open and leaves the reader wondering what exactly happened and allows the reader to decide their own beliefs. Wonderful book and highly recommended.
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