The Giver

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

This amazing and enlightening children's novel tells the unique story of a young boy, Jonas, and his journey and troubles in an extremely unique community. The Giver presents thought-provoking ideas as Jonas is given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve as the receiver of memories. The story continues through Jonas thoughts and ideas as he meets with his only true companion, The Giver. Lowry does an amazing job using setting up the different scene with vivid descriptions of the unique community that allows the reader to place themselves in the shoes of one of the members. This story is sure to place new ideas in readers mind as they think about the issues Jonas must courageously work through. This text would work better with a more mature audience because it begins to place some mature and confusing ideas into the readers mind such as the topics of war, death, and romantic thoughts and dreams. Students would relate to this novel as it creates very problematic decision making that children are sure to relate to on some level at some point in their lives. It is wonderful that Lowry uses such vivid imagery in her novel enough so that it would be a great time to incorporate descriptive and vivid imagery into a paired writing task with the reading of this book. The ending of this novel is rather surprising, abrupt, and unique. After thinking about how Lowry leaves the readers, I enjoyed it because it was rather open ended and allows the reader some interpretation and some points to ponder. All in all, I loved this The Giver and think that the ideas provoked are ones that are not often discussed in the classroom; therefore, this novel would be beneficial to investigate as a class.

Intended Age 12+