Messenger

Rating:
Summary: matty is not dead
Review: first time i read the Giver, i was hooked and so i read the Gathering blue and Messenger. i finished reading it not 15 minutes ago and i have to say something. otherwise, i will not be in peace.

i love lois lowry style, she makes me think of what my real name might be.

anyway, there are questions after i read the messenger and not to mention upset about it, but when i think of it, i realize, there goes lois lowry's style again.

we know that everytime Leader, kira and matty use their gifts, they will always tired and fall asleep.matty, since we know that he is a healer,( though doesnt know realize much the extend of his power since he discovered just recently), healed a frog and dogs. and if you are talking of healing the forest and the village, it's gonna be huge. so, matty is gonna sleep for maybe 3-4 days.. in his mind, he drifted overhead before, looking down on a struggling boy leading a crippled girl, so after a tremendous work of healing, he is drifting again. to let go in peace meaning his work is done and he has to rest. i dont think it's a self-destructing gift. village needs him as a healer. and in the distance the sound of keening began.why, they wont even reach the village for a couple of days and Village doesnt know what happen to Leader, Kira and Matty yet(they dont have the gift of seeing beyond). i guess the keening is for Ramon's sister.

it's a good book. im planning to read the other books by lois lowry. she has become my favorite author.

Rating:
Summary: Unanswered questions left me wanting more
Review: If you're anything like me, The Giver was a powerful and thought-provoking book. I was looking forward to some suspense of the same intensity, but closure as well. I had enjoyed the change of pace with Gathering Blue and was intrigued to see how the two stories would be tied together. Overall, the book was just too short. Characters were not developed as fully and the connection between the two worlds seemed almost trivialized. By the end if you missed even one word, nothing made sense.

The last chapter was a frenzy and the ending was too much of a "quick-fix" for a group of books that dealt with very heavy issues. I did like the portrayal of the Village and the interesting change in people who forgot their past and the kindness others had shown them. It would be a good tie in with immigration stories.

However, I just wanted more, more answers, more explanation. What was Jonas like now besides his job description? He seemed to walk around in an overly wise daze. What had happened to his town? All in all, I would say stick to The Giver for classroom use. Gathering Blue and Messenger have good issues to address as well, but The Giver does so with the most clarity and excellence in writing.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat of a letdown...
Review: In this book, a companion novel to The Giver and Gathering Blue, Matty is a messenger, one of the few with the power to travel through the forest. When his community, so well-known for their acceptance of strangers, decides to close its gates, Matty and his mentor know that something very wrong is happening- and Matty, with his still undeveloped power, may be the only one who can stop it.

I am a great fan of the Giver, and enjoyed Gathering Blue a lot, so I was very excited when this book came out, and read it in a single day. However, I was extremely disappointed. It felt like the author had written it simply because she promised a third book, not because she had a really cool idea. The characters seemed shallow and undeveloped, and the description of the village didn't fit in with the one given in Gathering Blue. You never find out the actual problem of the village, and the ending leaves way too many holes- and not ones that are designed to make you think.

Rating:
Summary: an intriguing fantasy
Review: In this eagerly anticipated companion to THE GIVER and GATHERING BLUE, it is the future, and the world has become a primitive place. Matty, Village's message carrier, lives with Seer, the blind man who took him in when Matty arrived in the town.

As his story begins, there is something Matty must do, although he fears it: he makes his way through Forest. Most of the other villagers won't venture into the increasingly dangerous woods because people, strangled by vines and branches, have died there. Forest welcomes Matty, however, and he has memorized the mazelike paths. This evening's mysterious quest leads to a certain frog. We learn that Matty discovered he has extraordinary powers when he healed this frog and brought him back from the brink of certain death. This potential force, with its implied responsibilities, terrifies Matty.

There are mysterious happenings in Matty's once-perfect Village. The family of Matty's friend Ramon recently traded for a Gaming Machine, a toy that rewards players with candy. Matty yearns for one of his own but worries about Ramon, who grows increasingly ill. A group, led by Matty's teacher, Mentor, has begun to protest Village's traditional open door to immigrants. This troubles Matty; it is so unlike the caring Mentor he has always admired. In fact, his teacher appears subtly different each time Matty sees him: Mentor is taller, thinner, and both his bald spot and his birthmark are disappearing.

Are the ominous changes in town related to the Trade Mart? What are people really trading? When Matty attends, everyone's hands are empty. Although they're making deals with the Trade Master, they bring nothing and carry nothing away. Some in the crowd weep; others argue. Most, though, are silent and nervous.

Matty promises Seer that he will travel through Forest to the village on the other side in order to bring Seer's daughter, Kira, to him. The clock is ticking because the villagers plan to build a fence by a certain date, admitting no newcomers. Matty believes they have time --- until Forest attacks the travelers. The trip toward Village becomes a nightmare journey, complete with flesh-tearing roots and twigs, blistering sap, unbearable stench and strangling vines.

Lois Lowry's many fans will love this fantasy, which continues the stories of several characters previously encountered in THE GIVER and GATHERING BLUE. In elegant prose, the author doesn't flinch away from harshness yet somehow manages to offer up hope.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (...)

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not as good as the prior books
Review: This book brings together Lowry's previous phenomenal works of frightening future societies, "The Giver" and "Gathering Blue." While both of those books were Orwellian in their own right, this book, though pretty good, is nowhere near that level.

It takes place a few years after Matty had left his friend Kira to go off to a far-off village with Kira's blind father. Matty has changed from the street-wise urchin to a responsible caring young teen, mostly from the guidance of Kira's father (Seer) and his schoolteacher, Mentor. Like the two previous books, a major event happens to young people at about Matty's age. The event here is that the person receives their new name, which is usually based on something they do. Since Matty is Village's messenger, he hopes for that name.

Also, like Jonas and Kira before him, Matty starts realizing he has a power. His power is the ability to heal. However, each time he uses it he uses considerable energy and it takes him a while to recover his strength.

Village's leader (who has the name Leader) is none other than Jonas from The Giver. Great legends have sprung up about Leader, with the sled that he arrived in as a major museum piece. Village has been open to all outcasts from all other villages, and has treated all arrivals with respect and honor. All that seems to be changing.

Weird things seem to be happening to people who attend a kind of town auction called Trade Mart. People that go there seem to be changing and not for the better. Seer and Matty start to realize this and things start to get worse as the townspeople, led by Mentor want to close Village's borders to all outsiders. Eventually, a vote is taken and it is agreed that this is to happen in a few weeks. Seer, worried that his daughter may not ever be able to come to Village, has Matty go on a mission to bring her to Village before the border closes.

Matty goes to see Leader and tells him what he must do. Leader agrees and realizes the importance of getting Kira to Village because the Forest is also doing strange things and becoming ever more dangerous every passing minute. Leader will need Kira's special abilities combined with his own and Matty's to defeat whatever evil is threatening all.

What made the other two books work so well was that they were independent stories that did not require reading one or the other first. Also, both societies though very different had harsh means to eliminate non-conforming individuals. This book loses something if you haven't read those books first.

Though Lois Lowry does have an amazing talent of packing a lot of story in very short books, I would love to see her write a much longer novel the next time around!