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Summary: The Giver by Colin McLean
Review: Characters:Jonas, Lily, Jonas' Mom, Jonas' Dad,The Giver,Gabriel Setting and Time: The setting is in so-called a perfect world with many different points of view of life. The time is really whenever you want it to be but I think it is in the future. Review: After reading the book, "The Giver," written by Lois Lowry it changed my perspective towards life. Jonas, a 12-year-old boy, living in is what to be a Utopia has just been selected to become the next, "Receiver of Memory," a very powerful job in the community. Everything is going well until Jonas finds out the truth about his community's past from The Giver. Jonas has feelings not many other people have and Jonas has a drastic plan to make the community differently. He takes with him his most precious being in his dwelling, Gabriel. Read this amazing book to find out its weird but great ending. This book, "The Giver," conveys a feeling of confusion but as the story progresses all the knots in the story untie at the end of the book. This story is so abstract in most of the chapters you'll have to re-read the chapter for it to make sense. The book has a sense of belonging towards the end because of the book's actions. This book is well written and has been rewarded with a Newberry Honour Award. The book deserves this award for its continuous page turning action all the way to the end. The Giver is one of the best books I have read in my life. The Giver should have a chance to be read all cross the country by each student in grade 6, 7 and 8. This book should be read all over the world. I give this book a four and a half stars out of five because it deserves a great deal of respect ans has little flaws that do jump out at the reader. I recommend this book to anyone over the age of 11 but they have to be mature enough to handle certain situations.
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Summary: A Profoundly Thoughtful Read
Review: Jonas lives in a "perfect" world where war, disease, and suffering have all been eradicated. Everything is in order; everything is under control. The people have no worries or cares. The Community strives for "sameness," in which everyone and everything are the same and equal. To help the Community function as a cohesive unit, each member is assigned a position in society. When Jonas turns twelve, the Community selects him to be the new "Receiver of Memories." Only the "Giver" knows the truth and memories of the past, and now he must pass these memories on to Jonas.
The Giver is a wonderful book. Lois Lowry skillfully crafted an intriguing and profoundly thoughtful story. She subtly creates an uneasy feeling that something is wrong with this "perfect world." The Community's advisors intend to establish security within utopian society, but they really establish a stifling dystopia. To protect people from the risks of making poor or wrong decisions in life, the advisors plan and dictate the lives of the people. In effect, the citizens have no freedom of choice; they do not choose their job or even their spouse. Moreover, the advisors inhibit the people's ability to feel because they want to spare them from the hardships and pain of life. For instance, individuals must take a pill everyday, which suppresses passionate feelings. The citizens do not know or experience true emotions like love. One of the goals of the Community is to achieve "sameness" so that no one feels embarrassed or gets excluded for being different. However, this limits individuality and freedom of expression because everyone conforms to a certain desired image. Finally, to relieve the population of the horrors and devastation of the world and the past, the advisors isolate the Community from the rest of the world (also known as "Elsewhere) and give the burden of holding the memories of the past to a single member of society: the "Receiver." Therefore, the Community lives only in the present, and the people have a narrow perspective of life because they only know their community and way of life. They are naive; they do not gain knowledge or wisdom from the memories. While receiving the memories, Jonas learns a different and better way to live and realizes what he and the Community have been missing. He decides that something must be done to change the current conditions and enlighten his community. Although it is a Newbery Award Winner, The Giver is a controversial book that has been challenged and even banned. After parents complained that the violent and sexual passages were inappropriate for children, the Bonita Unified School District in California temporarily banned the novel from classes. The Giver has been challenged in other school districts around the country for its "mature themes" of euthanasia, infanticide, and suicide. I do not agree with banning and challenging of this novel. It is a great book, and part of what makes it so great is the incorporation of these controversial issues. They force readers to wrestle with their own thoughts and figure out their stance on the issues. Good literature makes readers think. Banning this book takes away the freedom of speech, the freedom to read, and the freedom to learn and explore. The banning of The Giver is ironically similar to the actions of the Community that lead the Community to its suppressive and stifling state. A powerful story, The Giver keeps readers in suspense, touches them, and stays with them for a long time. I love this book, and I encourage everyone to read it.
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Summary: This book is the best one I have ever read!
Review: This is the best book ever! My English teacher was doing a sci-fi unit and to finish it up, we read The Giver. At first I was like ugh! I hate science fiction books, but then one day I had to stay home from school because I felt aweful. We were reading chapter 3 in class that day, so I decided it would be a good idea to read it. But after chapter 3, I went on to chapter 4, then 5, and then I couldn't stop. I read the whole book in 2 hours. If I were you, I would buy this book asap!
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Summary: Life Inside A Bubble
Review: Hello. For those of you out there who haven't read The Giver, run out and buy it. Lois Lowery has strayed from her usual course of writing books for teenage girls, The Anastasia Series is a flicker in the past compared to The Giver. This book tackles a subject that most of us have never consider or read about before, a utopian society or "sameness". The Giver is about Jonas, one of the few "different" people in his community. In the book a special day is designated for all of the children in the community to have a sort of birthday party. Children who become a Nine will receive a bicycle and Twelve children, like Jonas, will have a job chosen for them. Jonas has been selected as a receiver, a very special assignment in the community. On his first day of training, Jonas receives something from The Giver that few in the society have ever gotten. A memory of a sled ride. At the end of every training session Jonas receives a happy memory, a rainbow, Christmas or a birthday, in addition to all the painful memories he may receive during training, like war, or a broken bone. Jonas and The Giver have been talking about how the conversion to sameness doesn't seem right anymore. They began to plot and this is where the story really begins. In my opinion this book is undoubtedly a good read, but is wanting in the adventure department. I love the new concept of "sameness", but it reminds me somewhat of Communism, everyone supposedly being of equal respect and opportunity. Although in reality no one can ever be the same. I enjoyed reading about Jonas and discovering what life in his community is like, but the book lacked something. Not until Jonas's escape did I get really into the book and even that wasn't too exciting. I enjoyed it, but definitely thought it could have been better. I hope that other people can get more out of it.
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Summary: 8th grade
Review: First, I an an eighth grader at deerpath middle school, in lake forest, Il. Our class read this book as a project. I am in the lowest level of L.A.(our district's name for english) and I am not a great writer or reader, but after I got past the first three chapters, I finished this book in a day. This is amazing for me, I am a relativly slow reader, yet this book is so in depth,I found it impossable to but it down (I finished it 10 minutes ago) I have alwys been interstes in si-fi/futeristic books. The giver isnt si-fi at all, but it shows the terrors of communism and blindness in a easy to understand, and hard to out down package.
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Summary: One of the best
Review: The Giver is one of those books that you don't ever want to put down. The reader will get easily engrossed in the story, wanting to know what is going to happen next. This novel teaches people to be more appreciative of everything they have in their world. There are so many every day things that no one even pays attention to and take for granted. But after reading The Giver, your mind is opened up to how terrible life could be if the simplest things were taken away. For example our free will and our differences; without them we'd live in "Sameness" as the community in The Giver does. This book has been one of my favorites for the past 4 years, and every time I read it it's like I'm reading it for the first time again. It is a truly remarkable book.
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Summary: Don't Miss This Book!
Review: Thank you Amazon for recommending this book as I never heard of it. I read it one sitting and wanted more at the end! The book is a combination of Brave New World and Logan's Run. People live in a community where everyone is happy and conditioned from birth. All life's professions are chosen by the community elders at the child's 12th birthday. All society misfits and extreme elderly are "released." The story centers around Jonas, who is approaching his 12th birthday. At that time there is a ceremony where he will be told his life's profession and then begin the training for it. Jonas will begin a unique profession where he will learn the truth behind the community he lives in and all the things that mosts people are not permitted to ever know. Above all he will find out what happens to those who are "released." What he learns will either make him an important advisor to the community elders or go on a journey to find what he is missing!
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Summary: Awesome Book
Review: Read this book in English class when I was in 7th grade and I really liked it but was deeply disturbed at the same time while reading it. The Giver is about a utopian society that practices "sameness" and is really dull. It has no color, no diversity, no feelings, no weather, nothing whatsoever out of the ordinary. People who aren't perfect, people who break the law and the old are "released" from the community to go on someplace else. The main character is selected as "The Reciever of Memory" and thus starts his difficult journey as "The Giver". The author of this book, Lois Lowry put a huge amount of thought and philosphy into this book and also won an award for it. I would highly recomend reading this book, and it is part of my Permenant Collection.
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Summary: I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! by: Grace D.
Review: I always heard all my friends talking about how amazing this book was, but I had to see for myself. They were right! The Giver was a great book that showed what love and pain are really about. It also shows how scary a world of perfection can be. The Giver is basically about a young Twelve named Jonas who lived in a community of perfection. No one is poor and no one argues, and there is no color. Everyoen gets everything at the exact same time. Whether its a bike at Seven, or a job at Twelve. Everyone has different jobs that are assigned to them. Jonas is assigned to the most important job in his community. He is the new Receiver of Memory. Jonas must deal with all of the things the community has chosen not to live with. Such as: love, pain, color, sunshine, or snow. Jonas must be put through physical and emotional pain to receive all of these horrible things like poverty and illness that their cmmunity does not want. Lois Lowry wrote this book EXTREMELY well, and I would recommend this to any reader looking for a book that really makes you think.
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Summary: Recovering Skeptic
Review: Several months ago I came across this book while browsing the Newbery Medal winners in my bookstore. I picked it up because it looked like a quick read and for some reason I was convinced the book would be about a Native American Medicine Man who takes on a young student. To my chagrin, the book turned out to be about a communist type society. To be honest, I read the first 25 pages of this book and tossed it aside. Recently, I read a handful of the reviews at amazon and realized I may have misjudged the book. I returned to it, and forced myself through what I still believe is a very slow beginning. In the end, I am glad I read this book, as it eventually demonstrates the fallacy of the communist ideology. I won't tell you what happens, but will encourage you to read this book. And don't do like I did and judge this book too soon. Keep reading. Keep reading.
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