A Reading Guide to the Giver (Scholastic Bookfiles)

Rating:
Summary: The Giver
Review: The Giver written by Lois Lowry is based on a powerful and provacative novel, centered around the theme of Eutopia. The movie, Pleasantville comes to mind when I think of this book. In both stories, the characters arre placed in the same perfect setting. The characters live in a black and white world. Eventually color is discovered when they become aware of deep emotions. In The Giver, Lowry forces readers to bring own thoughts into play by her descriptive writing. I could see the world he wsa painting from the very beginning. "They moistened a little. The warmth spread, extending across his shoulders, up his neck, onto the side of hos face. He could feel it through his clothed parts, too: a pleasant, all-over sensation; and when he licked his lips this time, the air was hot and heavy." The characters she created were adventurous and amazingly believable. The main character, Jonas, is a young boy who lives in a perfect set world wwith no pain suffering love or fear. Everone has their own assigned role. He is assigned a special role, The Giver, when he turns twelve. The Giver is very important role becuase he keeps the whole community intact by holding memories; extreme pain to eternal bliss. While I read this book I discoverd how important it is to experience suffering, grieving and complete happiness. The Giver is a book recommended that everybody should read. It gives an escape from reality that everybody should endure.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Book!
Review: I loved this book! It kept me hooked for hours! Once I picked this book up I could not put it down. This book is fascinating with its different point of view and completely surreal content with its mixture of light and darkness with color. This story is in a black and white setting with one boy that is given images of color and memories. There are different twists and turns that surprised me and some parts made me upset, but I could not put this book down! I had to see how the book ended and how it all worked out. I highly recommend this book to people who want to read a strange but great book. I loved it!

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly Written
Review: An absolutely wonderful book. This book takes so many thingsgoing on in the world, and brings them almost "secretly"into the book. This is one of the best books I have read. Very different I give it 5 plus stars.

Rating:
Summary: I love this book!
Review: this book sounded pretty dumb when my teacher said it was a required to read this book. Once i read it, i wanted more! this is the best book ever!

Rating:
Summary: The Giver
Review: The story takes place in a perfect community, but what the main character, Jonas, came to find out was that it wasn't perfect at all. The community wasn't allowed the memories that I would consider so common that I wouldn't even give them a second thought, memories like the distinction between colors and what snow is. I think the story makes you think about what a perfect world could possibly be like, without pain and suffering, but some of the things the people in the community were denied I couldn't imagine living without.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: This book is pretty good, but not one of Lowry's best. It's about Jonas, a boy who lived in a futuristic community and was becoming an adult member of it. As an apprentice to the Receiver of memories, he learned about the individuality, color, and variety of the past. That's when the boy and old man knew that things needed to be changed. It was cool to learn about another world, how Jonas received memories of sunshine and snow. It was sweet how he cared so much for the baby Gabe that his Nurturer father brought home. A blessing and a curse is that the book is so easy to understand. Like some sci-fi novels, it doesn't confuse, but it could have more depth. Why doesn't Jonas reflect more on his new discoveries and feelings? Maybe he and the Giver(as he calls his mentor)could've done more to open the community's eyes, but their decision was a start. The book does serve as a caveat about what any society in the world could mutate into. This is a young adult book, so you wouldn't expect it to compare to Isaac Asimov. At least the story does have a happy ending. It would be interesting if there could be a series about young Jonas' adventures and what happens to him in the future, but speculating is also fun. Definitely read some of Lois Lowry's other works like "A Summer to Die", but this one is worth checking out too.

Rating:
Summary: The Giver
Review: The Giver is an excellent book for all ages. It is very interesting and makes you read straight through to the end. The story is about a twelve year old boy named Jonas. Jonas lives in a futuristic society that is "perfect." The community is controlled by sameness and everyone is exactly alike. The people have no recellection of their past and have no feelings. They have never experienced love or hate. Though it may sound ideal, as you read, Jonas discovers through his highly respected and important job that perhaps things could be better. In his job he must keep the memories of the past so that the rest of the community does not have to experience them. Despite his memories of death, war, hunger, and such, he begins to realize that the good memories overpower the bad ones. In his desperation from loneliness and frustration Jonas makes a drastic decision, that will change the lives of the community forever. I really enjoyed this book, as I have read it more than once. The only downside that I found to it was the ending. I have never liked endings that leave you hanging, as this one does, and I wish that there was a sequal. But, in general, I recommend this book to people of all ages. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: The greatest book ever
Review: I think after reading this book I had a whole new look on things. I really liked this book. A person can feel like an outcast all there life but in the end God or a higher power has a plan for you to fallow.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST read for ALL!
Review: This book is a MUST read for all young adult readers. It is thought provoking and stimulates conversations. It always amazes me how different people percieve this book and the realization that some events actually happen or could happen in our current society.

Rating:
Summary: A book without profundity
Review: Having read "The Giver" by Lois Lowry for the first time I liked the book because it was quite easy to understand. But this advantage of the book is also a big fault big fault because there is absolutely no profundity. The only protagonist, named Jonas, who lives in a community of "Sameness" realizes the mistakes of this collective life without any space for individuality and tries to break out from it. This is the material for a short story of 3 pages. But Lowry made a book of 150 pages out of it. That's why the story abounds with repetitions and the longer you read the more boring the book gets. But this is not the biggest failure. The most important weak point is the end. All is said there and when you put the book away there is nothing to think over. Good boks let space to think for your own but in "The Giver" there is nothing at all. So on the whole I would say that "The Giver" is not the right book for people older than 15 years because it's simply to light.