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Summary: If you haven't read it you are a lost soul.
Review: This is unquestionably one of the best books that I have ever read. I read it as a seventh grader and I am now in tenth. Every year the book gains new meaning for me. The Giver was very contraversial when we read it but that is the whole point of this book. It causes us to ask some very tough questions that may take a long time to answer.
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Summary: Message Received
Review: This little book is titled "The Giver," but the message is easily received. It is written for young readers, but the message is timely for most adults as well. Recognizing that this book has a young audience in mind, it is not surprising that the "message" is somewhat in your face. You don't have to take a college course in philosophy to figure out what Lois Lowry is trying to say. But that doesn't mean there isn't plenty to think about...there is! In the perfect little world of sameness that the story takes place, the ideas of knowledge, history, personal choice, diversity, death (and others) are considered bad and not useful for a successful society. The result seems, on the surface, to work just fine, but you discover that their denial is so great that they don't even see the deepest, darkest secrets of their own existence. They can't! Not because they're blind, not because they're brain damaged, but because their paradigms are so carefully shaped for them that they don't even know to ask certain questions. Only one member of the community at a time has any knowledge of the dark side of their collective experience, the Receiver of Memories. As engaging as the story is, it is also timely. Looking at my religious tradition, I can see elements of this story all over it. Looking at other fundamentalist movements, I see the same thing. Everywhere you look you see movements to reduce our personal choices and freedom, denying and re-shaping history to fit our wants rather reflecting reality. It's all packaged by those who claim special or even divine knowledge that they "know what is best for us, even though we, ourselves, cannot see it." Like sheep we follow, and that following results in such tragedies as the Mountain Meadows Massacre in our own western history, the Jonestown massacres, the Branch Dividians, and most recently the spate of Islamic terrorism that spans the globe. Each act is perpetrated by well-meaning followers who have sacrificed their personal freedoms, their personal choice, their personal knowledge, their personal awareness for good of the society, only to find that sacrifice of self equals sacrifice of society. This is a great little book, and one well worth the three hours it takes to read (though the premis is nothing new...it borrows shamelessly from other Utopian themes, such as B.F. Skinner's "Walden Two"). My copy is a "Readers Circle" copy, with discussion questions included. I strongly recomend reading this book with a group of others and discussing it together. The message will be that much more profound!
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Summary: The Giver is Brilliant writing!
Review: This novel is a brilliant work with deep insight into the future should humanity continue to try to control nature. There are unfortunate things that happen and that is just as important and exciting a part of life as anything else. The book gives us a look at the moral choices of a 12 year old boy that makes decisions that todays adults should be proud to have such integrity to choose. The ending is absolutely brilliant. It allows the reader to think whatever he or she chooses happened to Jonah. Lois Lowry herself said that the end is up to the reader. If you haven't read this book do. It is far above its reading level. Every adult out there should take in this quick read - it has a heart we all need.
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Summary: What. . .Utopia?
Review: This novel, The Giver, written by Lois Lowry is an exciting, breath-taking book. It is well written, and it keeps you interested with the exciting things that are happening. It is about a 12-year-old boy named Jonas who discovers the true meaning of life. You see, he lives in a community where there is no color or pain. Nobody is left hungry, and everybody is equal. You might think it is a utopia, but the people have to give up a lot. They have no love, no marriage, no originality, and no one can be the slightest bit different. Jonas is selected to be the next Receiver of Memory, who receives the memories of the past before the community went to Sameness, and he alone can experience the pleasure and pain of life. His father is a nurturer who takes care of babies, or so Jonas thinks. Actually, Jonas sees his father kill a baby on video screen! His mother works as a person who enforces laws. Jonas realizes that he lives in no utopia and that he lives in a totally separated society. His society is separated from practically the whole outside world. He realizes that his community is separated from the outside world from the memories he has been receiving from The Giver. He decides he cannot live without colors, pain, or basically a regular world with real love, so he leaves the community and goes "Elsewhere" to live in the pleasure of colors and weather. That is an extremely daring move. You see, in his community, nobody is allowed to leave their homes after dark. Also, he steals food. That is dangerous because the night crew is right there watching him take it! If I were Jonas, I would do the exact same thing he did. I could not imagine living in a society like that one. The Giver is a truly excellent book because the plot is interesting, and the book kept feeding me with more and more information. I recommend it to children ten and over because younger ones might not get or understand the true meaning of the book. I give it 5 STARS!
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Summary: I loved this plot
Review: This one of the most creative books I have ever read.It is pretty suspenseful and is a very fun book to read. It may be hard to understand at times, or really hard to understand, but it will all come together in the end. It may be too hard for someone below 5th grade, unless someone explains it to them. It is about a boy in a very stange society. He thinks it's normal but you won't. He gets elected the new receiver of memories, and has to accept painful, pleasant,fun and disturbing memories of the "bad times" from the Giver, or the old receiver.( We are living in "bad times") Sounds kind of confusing already, doesn't it? It is guaranteed to thrill you
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Summary: Pompous and not convincing
Review: This seems to be a rather heavy-handed polemic, a _1984_ for kids, though frankly I think the kids should skip straight to _1984_. Lowry's manufactured rightspeak is awkward, the dark surprises hidden beneath the placid surface of the supposedly Utopian society are not at all surprising, and, worst of all, her world is just not believable. Yes, it's fictional, and probably even allegorical. It still should be possible, or at least believable, in order to be chilling and convincing. A society that has learned to control the climate, iron the hills out of the landscape, prevent anyone from seeing colors, etc.? Give me a break. To say nothing of the fact that apparently many citizens are aware of the "secrets" underlying their paradise--the old, defective, or just plain extra are euthanized, etc.--but yet no one before Jonas has tried to blow the top off the system for centuries. And the old "they had perfect lives, but yet they did not feel LOVE" line is trotted out in all its triteness. And while I understand that Lowry was trying to depict a society startlingly different from our own, it's a little sinister that this supposedly-perfect-and-actually-EVIL society is notable for having women in positions of responsibility and power, and allowing men to work in childcare (though I have to note that this was a minor detail, and not the major thrust of the book at all). Also, I find Rifkin's reading extremely annoying. Surely they could have found someone with a perfect, bland, middle American non-accent to narrate the story of the perfect bland society. He makes the kids sound whiny and the Giver sound like he's been chain smoking for the past 40 years. The background music is also cheesy. I gave 2 stars rather than 1 as the writing wasn't completely bad and I appreciate her inventiveness and attempt to spread warnings about conformity. However, I hate to see classrooms using this dumbed-down dystopian tale; there's enough REAL literature out there that teenagers should be at least trying to read _1984_ or _Brave New World_ instead.
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Summary: The best book I have EVER read.
Review: This seriously is the best book I have ever read. It is so different than any other book. And it portrays what life would be like if we didn't have most of our blessings.It shows how one man changed one boy to change the entire world.The emotions you'll have while reading this book are overwhelming. It is so beneficial.
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Summary: What will Jonas do with these memories?
Review: This speculative novel won the 1994 Newbery Medal for best contribution to American children's literature. Apparently, it is one of the most popular books for children (approximately ages ten to thirteen) in the late 1990s. It is about a young boy named Jonas who lives in an unusual future world and is about to turn twelve. In this world, everyone lives in a highly structured Community and each is assigned specific roles. There is no war, no pain, and when one is old and is no longer contributing to the community, they happily are "released," although no one seems to know what that really means. When a young person turns twelve (all turn ages on the same date each year; just like horses do today), there is a big ceremony in which each is assigned their future job at which they become apprenticed. However, Jonas is not assigned to a job. Due to his special insights, compassion, and intelligence, he has been selected to be the new Receiver of Memories. This Receiver is a single individual who has within themselves all of the memories of the past, including memories of true pain, war, passion, family, etc. The older Receiver becomes the Giver and begins to transfer these memories to Jonas. Soon Jonas discovers concepts he never even considered. For example, he discovers color and that the ability to perceive color had been purposedly removed in the distant past. He discovers hills, snow, joy, and pain. And he learns about love. Finally, he discovers what "release" really means. And, he and the Giver must do something about it. Near the end of the novel, Jonas starts a quest to find others with imagination, memories, and passions; others with more humanity.
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Summary: I read the book The Giver dy Lowis Lowey
Review: This story takes place in a community in the future. the peope in the community get their life assignement at the age of 12. None of the people in the community can see in color or have any memories of the past. Jonas, the main charterin the book is choosen to be the Reciver of memories.This jod was considered to be a job of honer. Once Jonas recives different memories he feels out of place.
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Summary: And parents always tell you not to make the wrong choice....
Review: This story takes place in a future in which there are no choices. There are ordered little communities in which there are many rules and all people's lives are planned out by committees. In one such community, a young boy named Jonas is chosen to recieve the memories of all history. These memories of emotions are taken on by one person in the community to protect all the other people. At first, Jonas is a little scared of his new assignment. After a while, though, he can no longer understand why people have chosen to live without choice and emotion. Thus, he and the Giver, being the only two people with these memories, hatch a plan to try and give these memories back to the community in a hope to change it. I found this book to be extremely interesting. I would recommend it to anyone, but especially to people who like deep, science-fiction type books.
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