The Giver

Rating:
Summary: A very mysterious and new kind of book
Review: ... The giver, a very mysterious and new kind of book, did not sounded interesting because of its simple title. Instead of boring, I found it to be very interesting. I did like it more than the books I have read in school like A Separate Peace or Great Expectation. This book was different from the others; it was a mysterious and fantasized book. I love books that are out of the ordinary. For instance, the part where they said that people were being release. I did not know where they were going. That made me want to read it and find out. Another part was when the 12th years got their job assigned to them. It was intense because Jonas number was skipped. The other part that got me going was what was the name of the girl before Jonas that was Receiver. All this and more in this exciting novel. I do not want to give away the ending, but anyone who picks up this book cannot stop reading it.
I give this book a 4 because it is the best of the books I have read for an English class.

Rating:
Summary: The Giver--(the best book ever)
Review: ....The Giver by Lois Lowry has got to be THE best book that i have ever read. it was one of those school books and i thought that it would be yet another boring book from school. boy was i wrong. i read the book in about 1 day. its one of those books that u can't put down. I didn't rate the book a 5 star for nothing! this is a must read. you have to get it!

Rating:
Summary: Extreme Major Suckage in children's literature
Review: ...
I'm the most bookish member of my family, and the only professional writer (pharmacology, medicine, government regulatory horrors) in the house. As such, I've often been called upon to handle the kids' -- and now the grandkids' -- difficulties with school work. My eldest granddaughter had been tasked with a summer reading assignment centered upon Lois Lowry's novel *The Giver* (1993), and she brought it to me because she was directed to read it with an adult. Her mother and both her grandmothers decided that I'm the adult. Oh, well.

To skip forward a bit, as the granddaughter is now obliged to deal with the wad of photocopied work requirements associated with this book, I've been digging through the Internet to find background on this novel, and some sort of insight into the teacherly impulses so obviously behind the pre-packaged study assignments dumped on the poor kid in June. In the process, I've discovered (to no surprise whatsoever) that there's a massive presence for this horrible thing among the ex-education majors.

Understand, please, that I'm a science fiction fan. I'm thoroughly steeped in the genre. I also get my living through research and analysis, and spotting logical inconsistencies, intellectual sloppiness, and lapses in reasoning is the habit of a lifetime. I also used to read a lot of children's and young adult literature when my children were of an age to plough through such stuff, and I found much of it well-enough written to be pretty admirable.

When I began reading *The Giver* with my granddaughter (who's a bit dyslexic, and needs plenty of help to translate text-on-page into thoughts-in-mind), I kept turning from the contents to the cover, unable to believe that this thing had actually won a Newberry Award. This book was supposed to be on a par with *Maniac Magee*? Or *A Wrinkle in Time*? Or even a second-place finisher like *My Side of the Mountain*? Then I checked out the Newberry Awards list, and took note of more than a decade of Major Suckage in kids' literature (to which, I confess, I've paid not a whole lot of attention in the years between my own kids' growing-up and the rise to reading of my grandchildren).

"Ah," I realized. "John Taylor Gatto's *Dumbing Us Down* with a vengeance. Of course."

*The Giver* falls into a speculative fiction genre commonly known as "the dystopia novel," which includes Ayn Rand's *Anthem* (1938) as one of the earlier examples. To the limitedly literate, Orwell's *1984* is perhaps the best example of this sort of "if this goes on" procedural, drawing horrible future visions from what are supposed to be lucidly reasoned extrapolations of societal ghodawfulness either proposed or actually in train at the time of writing. There are many more examples, one of them being *An Enemy of the State* by fellow physician F. Paul Wilson, written during the galloping inflation of Jimmy Carter's idiotic presidency.

As a dystopia novel, *The Giver* is an example of Extreme Major Suckage. It is fundamentally dishonest as speculative fiction, and Ms. Lowry is wonderfully fortunate in that the majority of children today -- the victims of "dumbed-down" government schools -- are not customarily exposed to books like Alexander Key's *The Forgotten Door* or the juvenile novels written by Robert Heinlein during his contract with Scribners' in the '50s.

(At this point I recommend that the people praising *The Giver* read Heinlein's *Between Planets* [1951] or his *Citizen of the Galaxy* [1957]. Compare Don Harvey of the former book -- or Thorby Baslim of the latter -- to Jonas of *The Giver*, character developed against character, situation contrasted against situation, context versus context, and consider that not only were Heinlein's books written for kids of the same age as my 12-year-old granddaughter but they hit print about 40 years *before* Ms. Lowry published *The Giver*.)

The plenum -- the "world" -- of *The Giver* is logistically untenable. That's a fancy way of saying that it's too damned fragile to survive for any appreciable time as Lowry has described it. Societal systems of such cloying control, if they were liable to a breach such as that effected by Jonas in the story, would have been ripped to shreds long before the events of this novel.

This is an important defect, inasmuch as speculative fiction of both types -- science fiction and fantasy -- relies heavily upon sustaining the reader's willing suspension of disbelief. Even with the factitious mental retardation inculcated by government schooling, I don't see much chance that a reasonably rational child of ten or twelve years' age could ever manage to get past the "Sameness" bilge (*Induced* absolute color blindness? Gimme a break!) much less the total suppression of human ingenuity and initiative needed to preserve the sociocultural stasis depicted in this novel.

To put this in context, consider that the average episode of *Spongebob Squarepants* provides a deeper insight into human nature than does *The Giver*. Besides that, the Square One lives in a fantasy plenum -- Bikini Bottom and all the silliness therein -- that's actually better thought-out and more tightly integrated than the community depicted in Ms. Lowry's novel.

I understand why the ex-education majors (the public school teachers) like *The Giver*. After all, it's been "machined" to death with all sorts of off-the-shelf study points and similar pap to be regurgitated by the luckless student (which means that the teachers can stick it to their victims with about as much thought and effort as an oyster expends in getting his lunch), and it's not exactly an intellectual challenge. Education majors, after all, are without doubt the dumbest damned people graduating from college (see cumulative US military Stanford-Binet scores on officer candidates according to undergraduate major subject area; the three lowest-scoring categories every year are education, home economics, and physical education).

Beyond that, though, public school teachers are the most thoroughly "velvet fascist" folks in the country. Think of them as Mussolini's blackshirts with an ostensibly kinder, gentler face -- and a better public relations apparatus. These clowns secretly *admire* the "Sameness" in Ms. Lowry's book, and love to drown the kiddies in noise about how wonderful Jonas' community would be if only the governing thugs weren't as much inclined to have people "released" as is the average Texas politician.

Yeah, right.

...

Rating:
Summary: The Giver: Something Everybody Should Read (just to say...
Review: ...I read it) The Giver is quite a unique and fascinating novel about a young boy named Jonas who is selected to be the Receiver of Memory of a Utopian Community Lowry has created. This Receiver is to retain all of the memories of the past. From thoughts and experiences of extreme pain to much more enjoyable moments, Jonas will have to take it all in so that the citizens of the Community don't have to. Jonas soon finds, however, that there are many important things missing from the Community, and he wants to give it back... The Giver may be a book of only fifth grade level, but it is still interesting to read and think, "What if our lives were like that?" It also leaves a sort of impact when you finish, making you think about the whole thing for quite a while. The Giver is something that shouldn't be missed by anybody who wants something new and different to read. It's really not that bad.

Rating:
Summary: Most REMARKABLE for a new millenium!!!
Review: ...I read this book for a class assighnment and as soon as I started reading this book I couldn't put it down!! It's dialog and words join together 2 make an absolutely great book!!
I am so glad that we were able to read that book 4 class!
Lois Lowry is an author that brightens the faces of children all around the world no matter what the race, religion,or age!Lois Lowry gets many THANX from me!I'm only 13,but I feel as if I was in the "Community" my self!

Rating:
Summary: this book is sooooo good it's unbeliveable!
Review: ...it is such a good book, when I started reading it, I couldn't stop. I didn't have dinner,or lunch, when i started reading, my mom had to take the book away from me, to stop me! it made me cry in the middle, and at the end, I love this book, it's really good, so before you jus turn the page, and say, nah, that doesn't look like a good book, well YOUR WROUNG! I would buy this book, if your like 8-50, even adults can read it. so when your out of good books to read, just get THE GIVER.

Rating:
Summary: Great book (The Giver) by lois lowery
Review: ...Jonas's is a twelve-year-old boy living in a perfect futuristic world. There is no fighting, no pain, and no color, everything is completely organized. Everyone is assigned a role in the community at age twelve. Jonas is assigned to receive training from the giver. The giver alone holds all of the memories of the real pain and happiness of life before the governors started the community. But when training begins, things start to get tough. By putting his hands on Jonas's back, the giver can transmit memories. The memories can make Jonas actually feel the pain or live the happiness. Jonas finds out that his father has been lying to him about a baby boy, Gabe, and Jonas is forced to take action. Even in a perfect world like Jonas is in, life can be full of nasty surprises!!!

I loved this book. Lois Lowry did a great job of describing all the memories, it was like I was there instead of Jonas. I also liked this book because it was a page-turner. You would be surprised how often I said to my Mom, "just one more chapter, pleease?" At the end of the chapter she always left you hanging, which I personally think is a very good technique.
I'd recommend this book to more experienced readers who like science fiction books. The only reason I was a bit disappointed with it was the very last part. It was one of those endings that the author left you to decide the ending, and I don't really like those types of endings. But all in all The Giver was a splendid, fun book.

Rating:
Summary: A novel, that makes us thinking about our life in society!
Review: ...P>The protagonist of the story by Lois Lowry is the eleven-years-old Jonas. He lives, at first glance, in a wonderful community protected from pain, illness, unemployment or unhappiness. Jonas is approaching his twelfth birthday, the day on which he will receive the assignment for his future life. He is chosen to become the new Receiver of Memory. His teacher, The Giver, stores all the memories generations before had given up to live in Sameness. During Jonas' training in becoming the new Receiver he learns a lot about emotions, animals or different weather conditions, things that the other community members had never known before....P>That book is absolutely a great one. While reading the book through the eyes of Jonas more and more questions were raised - some where answered, some not. You get a closer look on your own life, your life as an individual, your life in society.

How would life be without happiness? Or without pain? What is life living in sameness? What is a protective society? Where do we have to draw the line between creating protection and taking away the things that make us human? And what is it exactly that make us human? Lowry doesn't offer us any answer, more effective, she makes us think of our own how these questions will be answered.

I have really enjoyed reading the "The Giver" and I guess it was the right decision by the teacher "making" us reading it. It was worth the time it took to read and understand ...

Rating:
Summary: A whole new world...
Review: ...that is what Lois Lowry has created. Right down to the hair ribbons and buttons, this world is all about sameness. It's hard to believe people could be happy living like this. Lowry is a master and she makes you think about and cherish the important things, like snow, sunshine, uniqueness, choice, and love.

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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)