The Giver

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Summary: The Giver Is a great book!
Review: She skipped me Jonas thought,stunned.Jonas is a 11 yea old boy, and the main character in Lowis Lowrey's The Giver.The story is about Jonas in his community of samness. there are no colors,everything is a dull gray. everyone is treated the same. And they are assigned family units! Talk about wierd! When Jonas is supposed to be assigned a job he is,insted selected to be the new Reciever of Memory. During his training with the Giver he experiences love, pain, anger, and hate for the first time. I really liked the Giver.Lowrey gives the reader the feeling that you are there watching everything happen. I highly recomend this book to children 9-13!

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Summary: author's comment about the ending of The Giver
Review: So many people ask me what the ending of "The Giver" means. What happened? Did they die? Live? Is it Christian in its symbolism? As the author, I purposely made the ending ambiguous and prefer to leave it that way because readers bring so many of their own beliefs to a book. If the author says she intended Christian theology in its interpretation, then what about all the Jewish people who see it as a coming-of-age story, and give it as a Bar Mitzvah gift? If I say: No, no Christianity intended - then what about the monastery where Trappist monks have read it because they found theology in its pages? So bear with me, readers; YOU decide what you want the ending to mean. (I do feel that it's an optimistic conclusion, though.

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Summary: The Giver
Review: Solid start and middle, but it gets pretty weak at the end. A very quick read. People looking for a good sci-fi / political commentary should read Starship Troopers by Heinlein (ignore the horrible movie on it -- it really has nothing in common with the book).

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Summary: The Giver just keeps on giving
Review: Some books seem to focus on just delivering the point the author is trying to make and getting it over with as quickly as possible, but the author of The Giver spends the entire book illustrating her point, and really making a wonderful little novel out of it. I enjoyed the way that Jonas interacted with his parents, and the way that Lois Lowry depicted a socitey without any shared memories. I really think that The Giver is a wonderful balance of great storytelling wrapped around a thought-provoking premise, that will captivate all readers for many years to come.

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Summary: Very Thought-provoking!
Review: STORY: As one of the editorial reviews so nicely put: "In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of Brave New World, in this 1994 Newbery Medal winner, Lowry examines the idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to create a more stable society. Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the price."

MY FEEDBACK
1) SETTING - The story takes place in a made-up utopian community that seems to exist in Earth's future at some point. The setting really is a huge part in understanding how this community has isolated itself through choices, in order to have the "utopian" society they have. It was very interesting and could be imagined thanks the the author's descriptions.

2) CHARACTERS - The character's play the parts they are assigned like the people in the community take the job they are assigned by the community leaders. There are no questions or variance from these roles because that is all the character knows. The character of Jonas is the one that breaks this mold and is the focus of the story. As he learns what his society is missing he grows as a character to be liked even though he isn't following the standards of practice that his peers are. His character becomes increasingly gripping especially in the last twenty or so pages of the book when he starts to act on his newfound knowledge in response to the contradictions he has been brought up with all tweleve years of his life.

3) STORY - At first I was reading this as the authors viewpoint of what a utopian society "should" be: Euthenasia, abortion, clothing is an nuscience, be intouch with your personal self, pills to control sexual desires, controlled and numbered births and marriages each year, etc. Then I came to realize that the society the author creates is not necessary her viewpoint but simply the concept created by the architects of that particlar community. Each community is a bit different depending on who configured them. But all in all, in order to live in a place without poverty, starvation and crime there are some major things each and every community gives up. This is the crux of the story and what really drives the climax and conclusion.

OVERALL - I picked this book up because I heard that a famous scriptwriter was contracted to do the screenplay for this book. It is an easy read and less than 200 pages. The story leaves you thinking about it hours later. I could not read the last ten pages fast enough!! The story just built up to this phenominal climax and conclusion that had me ripping through the book to the next page because I had to find out what happens. I got this book at the library and now I have to own it so I can read it at least five more times.

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Summary: GREAT SCIENCE FICTION BOOK!
Review: Story: Jonas lives in a new futuristic "perfect" world. No pain. No wars. But no true feelings. No color. No pleasure. No love. It's a dull dull world, not to mention boring. Jonas is selected to be the Receiver, the person who gets ALL the past memories of life before the "Sameness" (when everyone made the move to become as similar as possible) so that no one else will have them or feel them. But Jonas thinks that the world SHOULD see and have these memories because with the pain, comes great benefits. It isn't really living unless you them. What will Jonas do to satisfy his desire to share it with the world?

Comments: I love this book. I love all the science fiction books I've read so far. It makes you feel sad for the people in his world since there is no true feelings and stuff like that but it makes you appreciate your world. It frustrates me because no one praises differences and uniqueness...they all run from it. The ending is very satisfying. READ THIS BOOK! It's a great book. I think everyone should read it.

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Summary: Day Reporting on The Giver
Review: Summary:

Jonas lives in a community of Sameness, where everything is perfect and setup by meticulous rules. People can't choose their jobs, they're chosen for them. If the child bearers have twins one would have to be "released," because it is forbidden to have two of the same person in the community. At the Ceremony of Twelve in December Jonas is chosen to be the Receiver, who is in charge of holding the memories of life before the community. He works with The Giver, who transmits memories of snow, excruciating pain, love, emotions, and colors; all the things the community doesn't have anymore. With his new role comes new responsibility and new freedom. Everything is all good for Jonas until he finds out the secrets of the community. Will Jonas be able to handle the memories that unfold or will he just give up?

Review:

The beginning was boring but then the book started getting interesting and caught our attention. We found it interesting how there were no feelings, and how the kids weren't able to go through teenage changes. It made us wonder what it would be like not to have feelings. We were fascinated by how the community reproduced. We thought the ending could have been more detailed because we wanted to find out what happened with the community Jonas left behind and wether the community he went to was what he expected. We recommend this book to people of all ages and who are willing to think.

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Summary: Take a look at the front cover.
Review: Take a close look. This encompasses the central theme of the book. At some point, people realized that all kinds of sin and strife sprang from differences and envy. And so they removed color. The book never explains quite how- it's not pure science fiction but more of a mix with fantasy. But there are two in the society that can always see in color. And they are the ones who remember pain, for without pain you can not truly make wise decisions.

Now that cuts to the wick. You don't expect something so deep in a children's novel that puts the novel into a category of not only readable for adults, but one adults *should* read. Lowry very realistically describes the process of emerging color-sight, describing what it is like for the first time to truly see after all your life living in a society of black and white. In the process she reveals, if it is our differences which cause the strife between us, perhaps the removal of those differences is too great a price to pay. And perhaps pain itself is too great a thing to lose if it means a life of mediocrity and forgetfulness. For with much pain also comes much Joy.

The ending- by this I mean the last 3 pages- I cannot reveal, but it is far too quick and undeveloped. And it brings down the rest of the book. The Giver will stick with you; you will remember it's myth. But you must embrace it ultimately as an unfinished story, for the sense of complete incompleteness the reader is left with.

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Summary: Perfect for the teen-ager
Review: Teens may enjoy the adventure into a perfect world where he/she finds life may not be quite so afterall.
A snowflake will seem extraordinary after reading The Giver.

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Summary: Don't Miss This Book!
Review: Thank you Amazon for recommending this book as I never heard of it. I read it one sitting and wanted more at the end!

The book is a combination of Brave New World and Logan's Run. People live in a community where everyone is happy and conditioned from birth. All life's professions are chosen by the community elders at the child's 12th birthday. All society misfits and extreme elderly are "released."

The story centers around Jonas, who is approaching his 12th birthday. At that time there is a ceremony where he will be told his life's profession and then begin the training for it. Jonas will begin a unique profession where he will learn the truth behind the community he lives in and all the things that mosts people are not permitted to ever know. Above all he will find out what happens to those who are "released." What he learns will either make him an important advisor to the community elders or go on a journey to find what he is missing!