The Giver, A Novel by Lois Lowry

Lowry, L. (1993). The giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 180 pp.
Genre: Adolescent Literature, Science Fiction, John Newbery Award Winner

The Giver is a story about a young boy named Jonas who was a member of a very odd society. Jonas lived in what seemed to be a perfect world, where there was no violence or risks taken. As Jonas is getting ready to attend his ceremony of 12, he is nervous to find out what assignment he will be given. Everyone in the society was given an assignment at the ceremony of 12, so it was a big deal. At the ceremony he discovers that he is going to be the "receiver." The current Giver in the community was going to share all of his information with Jonas so that he could one day become the Giver. It is through the Giver that Jonas realizes that his society is not what he thought it was. They had no true emotions and were missing out on life in a big way. He begins to devise a plan with the Giver to try and bring his society back to normal.

Jonas is the main character in this book and the story focuses on his inability to "fit in" with the society. Even before Jonas is told he is to be the receiver and can never share what he learns with anyone, he was already somewhat of a misfit because he never really took to one specific assignment post so he did not know where he would be placed. The other characters in this novel are his family, who he later discovers are not the people he thought they were, and the Giver. Although the Giver was a part of the society and seemed somewhat grouchy and worn out all the time, he was still very genuine with and concerned for Jonas. The plot of this story follows Jonas's journey to becoming the Giver and his discovery of the truth behind the horrific acts that the people in his society, even in his family, perform. This novel particularly addresses the isolation of teens and their desire for individuality. Jonas, who already feels a sense of somewhat not belonging in the beginning, discovers that he has been given a greater purpose and realizes that he would rather try to make a difference even if his attempts failed, than to continue going along with his community. I guess one of the major ideas that I took with me after reading this was that if you never take any risks, then you are living somewhat of an isolated life. I don't know how much that point would really speak to teenagers, because they think they are invincible anyways, but it did register with me because I'm always to scared to take risks. This book also deals a great deal with lying and how Jonas reacts when he realizes that everyone in his society, even his own parents, are lying. Even though Jonas discovers that he to is allowed to lie because of his new work position, it is a concept that he really struggles with. I thought that was a great concept for teens to discover through this novel because many times they do not see the problem with lying and this sheds a different light on that topic.

This book could used for many things in the classroom. It could be great as an individual, small group, or whole class read. It could be a bridge to classics like 1984 by George Orwell or Brave New World. I personally would not recommend this as a read aloud because it might be a little hard for students to follow that way.

I think that the best age group for this novel would be 14 to 18. I know that a lot of students younger than that read this novel, but I think that some of the concepts may be hard to grasp at that age.

Because I am not a fan of science fiction, I sort of struggled with this book. It took me a while to catch on and really get into the novel. Honestly, I was pretty creeped out by this book. Their whole whacked society was a lot for me to take in and understand. By the end of it I was enjoying it more, but the ending still slightly aggravated me. This is definitely one of those books that would probably be best if read several times. I know that once I read the whole thing and realized what was going on, that I realized the entire book would be read differently the second time around and many more interesting aspects of it would stick out. This was not of my favorite books that I read, but if you like science fiction then you would probably really enjoy this.