Messenger

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous read!!!
Review: The Messenger is the perfect book for fans of The Giver. The Messenger actually gives more closure to The Giver while never really being about Jonah. Matty is an admirable character who learns he has a gift (much like Jonah had a gift in The Giver although Matty's gift is different). He must learn when to use his remarkable gift. All I will say is it is heartwrenching.
A must read!!!

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!

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: This book started off great and ended great! It keeps you guessing until the very end. A great ending to a great trilogy. Ms. Lowry did a wonderful job. A great book!

Rating:
Summary: Deceptively Simple
Review: This book ties together The Giver and Gathering Blue. It is a quick read, but don't let that fool you. I got to the end and was disappointed by what I thought was shallow simplicity and a quick-fix ending. However, when I tried to explain the plot to someone, I realized that like The Giver, this book could be read on more than one level. It would be a great book discussion book for people who have read The Giver and Gathering Blue and it will challenge the way you interpreted The Giver. A must read for Lois Lowry and fantasy fans.

Rating:
Summary: This is such a good book!
Review: This is a really, really good book. It centers around Matty (who was Matt in the second book Gathering Blue) and he finds out that he has a gift. Also, he has fled to a different village and is living there. People are starting to tell lies and to keep secrets from each other and the "forest" starts to grow as people keep secrets and lie. So Matty must go on a journey to get Kira (his friend from Gathering Blue) and bring her back to the village before the forest gets so thick that she can't ever come. Matty hits disturbing and challenging obstacles on his way back. This is a very sad book and if it doesn't make you sad then you don't love these books! A definent must read! I recommend it to anyone!