A Reading Guide to the Giver (Scholastic Bookfiles)

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Summary: I just loooove this book!
Review: This is the best book I've ever read! I read the whole thing in just two days! It's so intriguing and suspensful. It just makes you think of the world with a whole new light. If you like science fiction, but are way tired of the same old Star Trek, Star Wars, aliens, and starships, then this book is for you

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Summary: An Imperfect Society In An Almost Too-Perfect World
Review: In The Giver, Jonas is struck with the supreme reality of the task he must take. The task to feel ,hear, touch and reach worlds never found. How tutumulous for a 12 year old such as he, but Jonas takes a journey through time and possibility to fufill his ultimate task. Krystle Beauchamp ([e-mail])

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Summary: A thrilling fiction book with an adventurous twist!
Review: Jonas is very "apprehensive" as the Ceremony of Twelve approaches. When the Ceremony arrives, he is very shocked when his assignment is "Receiver of Memory". He knows that his assignment is undescribeable, and that no one in the community can describe it either. His training proceeds, but he learns that there is things that happen behind closed doors that are unimanageable. This is a must-read book! Another title from the author is "Number the Stars"

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Summary: Little Known Facts About the Book
Review: 1. "Soylent Green is made of people!" - Charleton Heston, Soylent Green (Keep this phrase in mind while reading) 2. "Elsewhere" and "Whoville" (from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas) sound an awful lot alike. (see last three paragraphs and you'll agree)

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Summary: They strived for a perfect community, but it is imperfect.
Review: I rated this book the way I did, a 6, because it wasn't quite averge, and wasn't below it. However, it was not a book I would care to read again, as it is about, basicly, the oppression of a community of people. It starts out with everyone supposedly being happy, and living in a perfect place, where there is no war, poverty, or starvation. However, Jonas looks past that and sees a community deprived of culture and freedom. But Jonas is chosen as the new Giver, in which he will recieve memories. Some sad and horrifying, others peaceful and serene. But in the middle of his training, the Giver and Jonas take a day off to see what Jonas's father does at work. He is outraged that his father murders people each day as his job! Eventually, he goes and takes a child who is to be slaughtered because of his bad habits. Jonas takes him, and some supplies, and they leave the community. They are almost caught, but they managed to escape. The ending is beautiful and heartwarming, but not enough to throw off the other feelings of monotany, oppression, and lack of freedom

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Summary: IT SUCKED!!
Review: THIS BOOK WAS LONG AND BORING. I DONT KNOW HOW THIS BOOK WON AN AWARD ! IT SUCKED! EVERYONE I ASKED SAID IT SUCKED TO. WHATS SO GOOD ABOUT A KID WHO IS CHOOSEN TO GO TO THIS OLD GUY SO THEY HAVE MEMORIES. THEY TOWNS SO STUPID THEY HAVE CLIMATE CONTROL! THERE TOWN IS COMMUNIST I'D SAY. MY REAL RATING IS A -10! I DONT RECOMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE!!!!

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Summary: I did NOT like this book
Review: I have enjoyed previous books by this author, but this is one I did not like. Rarely do I dislike a book, but this is at the top of my absolutely did not like list. I will say that it is powerful and thought-provoking reading, but I felt my soul, my being, was being ripped apart, and all that I have believed and hoped in was being questioned

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Summary: Vivid, distrubing view of a world that will never be known.
Review: This book,as distrubing as it was, was an excellent sci-fi book that, though odd, makes us all see that there is not, on the Earth we know, a place where everything is perfect.......as we can not know true happines or pleasure without first expiriancing pain and suffering. Jonas makes me (I am also 12) think more, though this is a reach, more about the freedom of choice, for in the Community, there is none. The book striked as a powerful reminder that there is not a better world than that the one we live in, for there would be no happieness if it were the same as the Community, and no feelings. Without feelings, we are not human, and the people in this book scared me that some day there really may be a place that comes around here or in some other life where there are no feelings, color, or, most importantly, love. :

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Summary: Can there be a universal Utopia?
Review: A universal Utopia, that's what the Giver is about. It makes for a bland society that keeps its citizens closely monitored and poorly informed. The Giver is all knowledgeable and suffers greatly with the knowledge of the past. He also is the only one who knows the joys of the past. The Receiver begins to learn and feels the pain. Will he too asked to be released? Will he be disillusioned when the truth is his? This organized society even decides what age to distribute bicycles. Most young people are irate at the pills which do not allow citizens of Utopia to have feelings of desire. As all things are monitored, what will be the one event that causes the Receiver to break? Are there any solutions that will allow this futuristic society to regain its past, accept pain, share joys, and learn to live again? This book integrates well with life skills and city-county government

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Summary: A Remarkable Book
Review: The Giver is truly a remarkable story in many ways. From the first, I fell in love with the utopian Community, a place of comfort and belonging. Like the main character, Jonas, I had to learn the hard way that nothing's perfect. As it was meant to do, this book raises questions about the balance of freedom and order in society, but the truly remarkable thing about it is that it tells this in such a way that us children can appreciate. I read this book every year, each time understanding a little bit more about what makes us human and what the ambiguous ending really means. I will never be the same for having read this book, and I thank you, Lois Lowry