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Lois Lowry's The Giver is perhaps one of the most provocative children's books ever written. Ms. Lowry's book is undoubtedly destined to become a "masterpiece" of the speculative fiction and negative utopian genres. Her skill as a writer is evident in the novel's superb structure. She slowly reveals details of the society in a natural and subtle manner; yet she has concealed some of the details so successfully that they come as a complete surprise to the reader. Through this slow method of revelation, Ms. Lowry transforms an at-first-glance utopian society into a horrible and repressive negative utopia.

Ms. Lowry's vision is extremely prophetic. The society she depicts is staggeringly realistic and hits close to home. Indeed, such a society could easily evolve from current trends for political correctness and oversensitivity. Thus, her society is almost frightening in its accuracy.

Overall, The Giver is masterfully crafted, as evidenced by its Newberry Award. It is most certainly worth a read, even if you are not a young adult. In fact, an older person should be able to appreciate it just as much, although an older and more experienced eye should be able to pick out minor flaws in character and idea development. The only thing that detracts from the book is its sloppily constructed ending. Abrupt and unfulfilling, it leaves too many questions unanswered and certainly disappointed me. But give the book a try if you haven't already. It's worth it.

This book was so good! i loved it and couldn't put it down. It is different from other books. I am so glad that everyone is differnt(youl get me when you have read the book)
Set in a future in which communities are entirely regulated, all life patterns ordered for maximum security, uniformity, painless existence, and pleasant, if uneventful family life, this novel unfolds the story of Jonas, a promising boy who, with all his age peers, will receive his adult assignment from the elders on the yearly day of advancement celebrated for all children going through carefully calibrated developmental stages. Jonas's assignment, however, sets him apart from his peers, and ultimately from the whole community.

He is selected as the next Receiver of Memories, a post that allows him access to knowledge of the past carefully guarded from all but one Receiver in each generation. His lot will be to bear the pain of bearing, not only in his mind and imagination, but in his body, feelings and sensations suppressed in others by lifelong administration of biochemical regulators.

Besides the old Receiver of Memories, whom Jonas calls The Giver, he becomes the only one able to see colors, feel pain, desire, loss, hunger, and to remember a world in which people felt something deeper than superficial stirrings. Among other things, he discovers what it is to feel love. Horrified at the blankness in which his people live, he chooses, with the Giver's blessing, and at great risk, to escape the community, and thus to release into it the memories he will not keep to himself.

Rescuing a child destined for "release" for nonstandard development, Jonas embarks on a journey that leads him to a faraway place where the old life survives, leaving behind him a community that will emerge from their anaesthetized condition into the costly terms on which the gifts of ecstasy, joy, awareness, grief, and pain give life its value.

This is a complex, beautiful book that offers a look into a futuristic dystopia in which there is no color, no aberation, no hot or cold, and no personal choices. Drugs are taken to repress sexual urges and even out temprament, and careers are chosen for children based on their aptitude. Children are raised in prearranged family units. There is no privacy and no personal choice, but is this really a bad thing if people have no concept of those things? There is no hunger, emotional pain, violence, crime, war, or sadness.

Growing up in this world is Jonas, a bright 12 year old who is about to receive his career assignment. He is given the important but extremely rare job of "Reciever": the keeper of "memories" of what life was like before the creation of his utopian world. Slowly, he begins to see color, to learn what love, hate, death, and heartbreak are like. He begins to understand that some of the "happy" things around him maybe aren't so happy.

The brilliance of this book is that the world unfolds gradually. Lowry does not hit us over the head with an up-front description: in fact, the place starts out sounding fairly normal if a bit Montesori. Slowly, though, the reader realizes quite how foreign this world is. Lowry is a deft writer with an excellent sense of subtlety.

Ultimately, this book is about the importance of cultural memory. The idea of cultural memory is probably a new one for kids, and some of the concepts of death and destruction might be a little disturbing, so I recomend that parents read this book too so that they can discuss it with their children. This in no way means that I think that it is innapropriate for kids: I just think that it is an amazing starting point for discussion about what makes us human. Please read my review of "A Wrinkle in Time" (also made today) for my thoughts on how these two books are related.

This is a moving, thought-provoking book that is a great read for adults as well as kids. Adults might find it interesting that the idea of a drugged-to-make-them-"normal" population where everyone is encouraged to analyze and discuss every aspect of their lives sounds eerily familiar...