Rating: 
Summary: This is DA BOMB!
Review: Let me start by saying that in the fourth grade I ask the school librarian what book she recomended. She told me The Giver. I didn't really want to read the book, so I told her no. Then, three years later, seventh grade, my teacher told us about The Giver, and it sounded really cool. I read it in two days. I couldn't put it down. I was so overwelmed with the book I kept telling my mom about the book. She had no clue to what I was saying. I LOVED this book, and I'm really sorry that I didn't take it in the fourth grade when I got the chance.
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Summary: 9th Grader, Just finished book
Review: Let me tell you this, this is a great book. I believe that the ending could have been better(and yes, i got it). A real great fantasy story. I loved it but it only gets a 4 dut to the ending.
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Summary: A utopia comes at a depersonalizing cost.
Review: Life-long care. A highly structured, advanced society where everyone has a role and no one has a need to rebel. That is the environs into which Jonas is born. Every year of his life, in the life of any inhabitant of this unnamed city, there is an assigned role with accompanying tasks, an obligatory training to prepare for the twelfth year in which a person receives her or his life's profession.In such an idyllic location it is interesting to note that those who are assigned to give birth are looked down upon; after two years of giving life to babes who will be subsequently assigned to parents who are allowed only one boy and one girl, the woman is assigned to various other chores. She is a lifegiving machine who maintains the population of the community but her ensuing role is that of some type of common laborer. No rewards for this profession! There are those who do the cooking and deliver meals to all of the inhabitants, those who clean up after the food has been ingested and trays left outside the home, those who are teachers, those who are nurturers, those who are caregivers to the elderly and those who are assigned legal tasks. The penalty for non-compliance, or non-conformity, is "release". By itself the word is innocuous enough. What it actually means, is hazy. Finally, at some point in time the elderly must be released and the decision is made for them. Big Brother is always watching and reminders are issued via an intercom. Faults and mis-steps seem to be gently dealt with but "release" is the ultimate verdict once a certain amount of opportunities for correction have elapsed. Dreams are processed each day as are feelings of anger, hostility, frustration. Reasons for behaviour are evaluated and the reason appears to be that if feelings can be processed a homeostasis will always return. Lying is strictly forbidden...until.... When the twelfth year finally arrives, a bizarre occurrence takes place. Jonas and all his contemporaries who are about to turn 12, are called to an auditorium at which time they revert to the numbers they were originally assigned, prior to the "name giving" that occurred when they were officially presented to their selected parents. Jonas is not called to the stage when his number is called. He is shocked as are all the members of the town who are present for this important occasion. The reason for the slight becomes apparent when Jonas receives the highest honor possible, he will become "The Receiver". His studies with the present Receiver reveal a far-from-perfect society and it is each subsequent Receiver who must be the recipient of the painful memories of the past. This takes its toll on each honoree as s/he literally bears the weight of the world in order to alleviate the town's folk from having to do so. Jonas gradually rebels and takes dramatic steps to escape what is not at all idyllic. Let the reader discover this moral tale. The novel is well done and can easily appeal to adults and adolescents alike. The fortunate adolescents will have adults with whom to review this book as it has many painful, ethical, moral issues to be discussed!
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Summary: A book with appeal beyond the science fiction genre
Review: Like A Wrinkle in Time and Tuck Everlasting, Lois Lowry's The Giver is a book with appeal beyond the science fiction genre. It would interest a general audience looking for a story about what societies value in human terms. It is a sophisticated book. Both Jonas and the reader are on parallel courses, both gradually realizing the dilemma Jonas faces. The reader begins innocent of the fictional setting, and discovers how it functions as the story unfolds. Jonas, the 12-year-old protagonist, on the other hand, knows nothing about societies in the past like our own and finds out step by step. The dramatic climax of the book comes when the two converge. Lowry has imagined an intricate future society, with some recognizable elements such as nuclear families, but other foreign combinations, such as birthdays for all people on one day a year. It seems to be a society that has taken social science ultilitarianism to an extreme. Their language has a clinical sound, such as "comfort object" for a teddy bear, and more poetic terms like "love" have no place. The author has done a clever job at "seducing" the reader by creating a society with many desirable traits. One can see the reasons for the choices the leaders made and that makes the drama and provocativeness of the book even greater. It is a book that works skillfully on both the intellectual and emotional levels. Recommended to readers 15 and older.
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Summary: One of the best
Review: Like many other students, I was assigned to read The Giver two years ago, when I was in the seventh grade. I figured it would be like all the other stories that students are often required to read - boring, meaningless, and leaving the reader nothing but a feeling of gratefulness that the book is finally complete. However, I immediately knew that The Giver was different. Many stories, especially those assigned to students, are hard to get involved with, but I was intrigued with the Giver right from the beginning. It was almost addicting, and gripped me from the provocative beginning to the vague but suspenseful finish. Since we had only a classroom set of The Giver, we were not permitted to take a copy home, so when I went to the bookstore that weekend I sneaked a peek at the chapter to come. When my younger sister, now in seventh grade herself, was given the same assignment, I couldn't help but to take her copy away from her and read it again. Two years later, I continue to be impressed by how Lois Lowry's tone drives you to become part of Jonas' community of Sameness, helps you to experience the memories he receives, and even causes you to feel his joy, his wisdom, and his pain.
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Summary: What Are You Waiting For?
Review: Like thousands of other English classes around the country, mine has been reading The Giver. The Giver, in my opinion, is one of the most thought-provoking books of recent memory. The plot, which I won't give away as many other reviewers have, is very well crafted by Lowry. Though the book is intended for a younger audience, many adults will enjoy it as well. This book is a "must get" for any readers who truly understand and enjoy their books.
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Summary: couldhave done better
Review: Lios Lowry's The Giver is a good book ay first, but thern as it reaches the end it loses the its touch. The book just stops you as it was getting to get better. As if you were talking to some one on the phone you are disconnected right when something important was about to be told. But it does have the effect of you gluing your eyes to the page. when your eager to find what happens next. But from all the work Ms. Lowry did on the book, I feel she could have done a little better.
7.2DB
Rating:
Summary: An Evilly Perfect World
Review: Living in a world like the one Lois Lowery discribes in The Giver may sound cool, but when you relize later on in the book that babies are killed if they aren't just right makes you wonder: is that a perfect world? It would be nice to live in a world without crime, but would you want your job chosen by someone else? I wouldn't. The elderly are put to sleep since there's no need for them, and nobody knows this except for the people in charge of the community, and The Giver. The Giver is a book that shows a world that seems perfect, but underneath, it has just as much death as this world, except it's disgused. When Jonas ran away with the little toddler his family was caring for because he was to be put to sleep, I admired that, and I hope that he arrived in a nicer community then the one he lived in. This is another book I'd like in my library. It shows how evil can disguse itself.
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Summary: Laziness Turns into Paradise
Review: Lois Lorry does not give us perfect society. She gives us a society of every day people who are very lazy. I read this book in eight grade and I really didn't understand it, but now that I have read it again I totally understand it. The book is about a perfect world. Everyone is happy. There are no feelings of any kind. No one has a name they have numbers. Lois Lowry has a strange imagination. I know I would have never thought of something of this sort. I think that this book will please a lot of people. I also like how the mood would change from happy, to sad, to exciting. I really liked when Jonas gets his memory about snow, and how he had so much fun. I also liked how he wanted everyone to have those memories that he had received. I thought that it was neat that they didn't have birth mothers. They didn't get their bikes till they were age 8. It was neat in the way that one person had all the memories and no one ever knew what happened in the past. However the end was really different. I never would have thought that The Giver would have ended like it did. I would give this book three stars, because it's good.
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Summary: The first Step in Teaching Children to Think
Review: Lois Lowery has done a remarkable job with this book. She has set up a perfect world where everybody has a place and there is no poverty. Everybody recieves an education and health care. there is no crime nor jealousy. The perfect world... or so it seems. Jonas, the protangonist, reaches the magic age of 12 where he is to be selected for his life's work. He is selected to be a reciever, the keeper of knowledge and feelings for the entire past. Jonas learns from his teacher, the giver, that everything is the same without change, ever. The reader finds out the community doesn't even see color or have true feelings. Throughout the book, Jonas learns of the terrible secrets of his training and the true cost to the society. He also learns why there is a reciever and why he is so imporant. Lois Lowery has shown the flip side of utopia. If all of the bad is removed and most of the good is also removed, what is left? An empty space. This is great place to start children thinking about what they think of utopia and then explain what they think utopia is may not be what they really want. This is very good book and I reccommend it.
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