Rating: 
Summary: Novel stresses the importance of understanding your past
Review: Lois Lowry's The Giver teaches society an important lesson that it most likely hasn't spent much time thinking about. That lesson is the importance of a culture knowing its history and heritage in order to savor the present. In the novel there exists a society that experiences no pain nor hunger, dilemmas nor uncertainties. Everything has its organized plan, as every person has his/her own pre-chosen fate. This strife-free society comes at a tremendous price, which only the title character, the Giver, and his protege, Jonas, realize. This price is the knowledge of themselves and their past. The people of the society have no concept of the generations before them. To them, there is nothing beyond the Community. They kill those that they claim to "Release," due to old age or request to be released. In order to free the citizens from pain and burden, the memories of their past lie on one chosen member, named the Giver. It is the Giver's job to carry the weight of the past on his shoulders, and his alone. To the oblivious Community, this plan is ideal. They go about their simple lives, having to make no choices nor experience any suffering. What only the Giver, and his student, Jonas, realize is that they also miss out on the good memories, such as sunshine, color and music. There is no love in the Community. There is truly no real emotion beyond the shallow feelings that arise during the routine days. By freeing themselves from strife, the Community has unknowingly sacrificed any point to existance. They merely continue about their ways like robots. Jonas and the Giver resolve themselves to returning the memories to the Community. They, being the only ones to experience the joys of choice, realize how important it is for everyone to share that. Without a shared remembrance of the past, there is no way to savor the present, nor prepare for the future. One's heritage is his/her identity, and without an identity, there is no true living.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book I've Ever Read
Review: Lois Lowry's The Giver, which one the Newberry Award,is a well written cliffhanger that will leave you on the edge of your seat.
In a world without color, music, weather, or memories, eleven-going-on-twelve Jonas lives in his perfect community with his family and friends. Once the children turn twelve in this community, they are assigned their job for the rest of their life.
Instead of being assigned to a job, Jonas is chosen as the next Reciver in his community. The Reciver is the most honored man in the community. It is with the Reciver while Jonas is learning to be a Reciver that he learns of things he has never known before- color, music, weather, and the most important, memories that he realizes that his "perfect" community isn't as perfect as he thought.
Rating:
Summary: Things That Make You Go "Hmm"
Review: Lois Lowry's, "The Giver", is the best book that I have read in a long time! I couldn't put it down and I read it in less than a day! It is thought provoking and original!
In our world of war and contention it is a major eye opener to see a picture of what could happen if we became overzealous in our efforts to "purify" our world from the affects of pain and suffering. This is a great example of the consequences that come from trying too hard to completely separate ourselves from the sometimes-horrifying world we live in.
This is a book that I will read over and over again. I would recommend this book to anyone for a class project or a plain ol' good read. If you haven't read "The Giver", then you are missing out! Run as fast as you can to the nearest bookstore or log on to the first website you can find and purchase this book. You won't regret it!
Rating: 
Summary: Set in a seemingly idyllic and utopian society...
Review: Lois Lowry, a prolific young adult author with many titles to her name, has stepped outside of her usual lighthearted and humorous works to write a science fiction novel that may surprise many of her readers. In The Giver, Lowry creates a safe utopian society, where the people act and look the same, where everyone abides by the same rules. On the surface there are no problems, yet the characters in the novel are human enough to make the reader sympathetic to their fate. Conflicts begin to arise when the main character becomes aware of many inherent problems in the society. Jonas, the major character, is a boy who lives in this society and the plot of the novel is based in part on the transformation of Jonas from a model and very important citizen to a rebel who chooses to turn his back on his family and world. The climax is reached when the characters are forced to find a solution to their conflict, however the ending of the novel is inconclusive and the readers must supply for themselves what happens in the end. Recommended for all school Libraries.Michael J. Spencer
Rating:
Summary: The Giver, despite definite merit, contains many flaws.
Review: Lois Lowry, an excellent writer best noted for her
unforgettable Anastasia series and her Newberry Award winning Number the Stars, has created an interesting and original story in her account of Jonas, a unique twelve
year old coming of age in a society that is not quite as
utopian as his parents might have him believe. While Lowry's characters are both realistic and likeable and her plot intriguing, her ending leaves much to be desired as it is somewhat ambiguous. I read this book with the twelve year
old student I tutor on two separate occasions, and though
we both enjoyed the story, the uncertainty of its ending disturbed him and concerned me. Lowry appears to have been
inspired by an idea pertinent to our technology dominated society, yet she hesitates in addressing the point she wishes
to make fully. I do recommend the book on the basis of its
many merits, but I suggest that it be read in the classroom
or with a parent so that it might be discussed.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent.
Review: Lois Lowry, The Giver (Laurel-Leaf, 1993) There are a few books released every year that gain both wide-ranging critical acclaim and deep popular support. They are few and far between, and fewer still when the book in questions stirs up as much controversy as has The Giver. Personally, I don't see what all the controversy is about; everything in here that could possibly be seen as questionable is an echo of a canonized piece of science fiction (the two books that most come to mind are Logan's Run and Brave New World). Yet, as soon as you try to boil down Nolan or Huxley for the kidlit crowd, hackles get raised. I just don't get it. A distillation this may be, but it is in the same way that Things Fall Apart is a distillation of Greek tragedy; there's enough there for the author to have worn her heart on her sleeve, but the themes are places within a different framework of characters well-enough drawn that no one's ever going to be accusing Lois Lowry of plagiarism (one hopes). The story centers on Jonas, on the brink of turning twelve at the beginning of the novel, in a utopian society where there's no crime, no poverty, etc. Jonas is chosen to be the new Receiver of Memory for the colony; he's something of an uber-consultant, the person to whom the ruling council turns when they come across something they have no way to understand. For Jonas, and those Receivers before him, store the collective memories of those things which their society has managed to forget over the time they've been apart from the rest of the world (never actually stated, but by the way the characters talk about the world previously, it's been hundreds, if not thousands, of years). Lowry sets things up exceptionally, and there's a wonderful revelation about halfway through the book that alone is worth the price of admission (when Jonas figures out what seeing-beyond really is-Lowry has managed throughout the beginning of the book to lull the reader into such a state that the reader hasn't even realized what it is that's missing). While that's the only real surprise here, the predictability of much of what comes after is forgivable enough. Lowry sets up a number of easy endings, none of which she takes, and the predictable pieces to the puzzle are all part of that setup. Just because the end result could have been done better doesn't mean it's not good as it stands. Highly recommended. ****
Rating:
Summary: a sequel is needed
Review: Lois Lowry, when will you come out with a sequel to this unable to be put down novel. My fifth graders agreed. They say Hollywood should make this story into a movie.
Rating:
Summary: A life without feelings
Review: Lois Lowry`s "The Giver"is a very interesting book.We had read it in School and analysed it. We find out that the novel is sometimes difficult to understand for the reader,because the author often uses abstract words and we didn`t nothing about the future like this.I find the book fantastic , because you get knowledge how the life could be in the future. You can take part the main persons life.But I think that the end of the book doesn`t fit the story. So we write a new end about the new life and feelings of Jonas.
Rating:
Summary: The book was very interesting.
Review: Lois Lowry`s book "The Giver" is very interesting.It is about a world in the future where love,pain and feelings do not exist.At the Ceremony of Twelve Jonas ,a twelve years old boy, is chosen to be the new "Receiver of Memories".After this day he gets the point that life is not so perfect like he has thought before. The book is written in 23chapters.In my opinion the first eight chapters are a little bit boring.But after the Ceremony of Twelve in chapter eight the storie changes.It is very fascinating because you gets an interesting insight into the future.I can only recommend this book,because it is very interesting how other people think about the future.In this book the future is discribed realistically.
Rating:
Summary: Gets you thinking...
Review: Lois really gets you thinking about what life would be like if we were all the same. He creates an inspiring world in which every one is the same and you do not have to make any important decisions. I deeply enjoyed it.
|
