The Giver

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Summary: An eye-opener, with a pleasant outline
Review: I'm a 12 y/o from San Diego and i read The Giver last year. I understood most of it but the beginning was a little shaky as i was only 11. But still, toward the middle of this fascinating book, I started to understand the beginning and how it connected the end to itself. Then it all unraveled and started to make perfect sense. It looked like Lois Lowry was smoking something in the beginning but the end added a cherry to top this masterpiece.

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Summary: A Wonderful Book!!!!!
Review: I'm a 6th grader in upstate NY, and had this book recommended to me by my librarian. Thank heaven!! I think that this is a great book that any middle schooler should read. The only reason that I did not give this book a 10 was that I thought that it overstepped the bounds of good taste when it talked about Rosemary being 'released'. I hope that you will enjoy this book as much as I did!

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Summary: An amazing book!
Review: I'm a twelve year old who read this book in two days when books the same size usually take me at least a week. I read this book when suggested it by a friend. I'm glad I read it! It's about a boy named Jonas who lives in a community in the far away furture. The world he lives in is perfect. No one has a choice about anything from whom their spouce should be to what job they should choose. They don't even make their own children! A person is selected to do this job. Every one is the same and every one develops the same. Children even have their birthdays on the same day! The rules are very complicated because they don't want the would to go back to the same state as it was long before. When Jonas turns twelve, he gets the highly honored job of resever of memories. The person who gives him the memories is the giver who got the memories from the giver who gave him the memories and so on. The reserver's job is important because he is the one who reseaves all the painful memories of the past which are given to him so that the community won't turn to what it once was. Some of the memories are painful but some are also good memories of things such as colors and birthday parties and love. So, wanting to get away from the community and go "Elsewhere", where there supposidly are colors and everything he reseaves. This book is very good but I think a little to strong for younger children such as when you learn what really happenes when people are "realesed" form the community. Otherwise, this is a great book and, I think, deserved the Newbury medal, which it was awarded.

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Summary: BEST BOOK EVER!
Review: I'm gonna keep this short and sweet..... The Giver by Lois Lowry is the best book I have ever read. Its one of those books that make you think, and the ending leaves you feeling fulfilled. Wonderful descriptions also. I recommend everyone, young and old read this book.

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Summary: IF YOU WANT A GOOD DEBATE ON UTOPIA...
Review: I'm in 8th grade and read this book for Language Arts class. I loved it when I read it in 5th grade, and I still adore it, 3 years later (unlike the Chronicles of Narnia or A Wrinkle in Time). The Giver is a very intriuging book about a utopia where people are accustomed to a certain world, and "programmed" into their emotionless way of life. And when the main character, Jonas, is selected to become the very honored Reciever or Memory of the community, his world suddenly changes. This book brought up a very interesting conversation in my class about what is and what isn't a utopia (perfect world), where the limits are, and how close our world is to becoming one. The Giver really gets people of all ages to think about and compare our freedom and emotions to those of the people in Jonas' world. This book is more of a juvenile book, and I also HIGHLY recommend Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell to any more mature reader who enjoyed The Giver. Like The Giver, 1984 is about a unique thinker in a programmed world, though it is a much more political book, about dictatorship and power, and abuse of power. 1984 and The Giver are EXCELENT reads, that WON'T let you down!!

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Summary: THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I EVER READ!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I'm not one who reads a lot, I wouldn't pick up a book and read it, in fact this was a school assingment. But this book was incredible, it was amazing, it made me realise how prescious memories are, and how bad a utopian society would be. THIS BOOK WAS GREAT

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: I'm really not a person who gets into books. I'm 12 now and that book was the only book I ever read where I actually cried. I won' t tell you what was so sad, that would spoil it. READ IT! IT'S WORTH IT!

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Summary: Book Review of "The Giver"ÿ
Review: I've always been a big reader. One of my favorite things to do is read. I've never really liked reading books in class, though. We never get to read any really good books. But my class just finished reading "The Giver," and I actually liked it! It was a really great book. Basically, it was about a perfectly organized community where people's choices were made for them, from simple decisions like what to wear to important choices like what career to choose. In the story the actions of a boy who is chosen to receive memories of the past, where colors and choices existed. The actions of this boy change everything for the Community. Part of the reason I liked it was because I've always liked imagining a community as perfect as the one in the story. It really makes you thankful for all the things you were lucky enough to have that didn't exist in the Community. It makes you realize that, hey, we're pretty lucky to have great things like color and families and the privilege to make our own decisions. Really, these are very important things. We just don't know how important, because we experience them every day. "The Giver" tells us that, and makes us wonder what life would be like in the Community. It opens up a whole new door of possibilities.

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Summary: The Giver
Review: I've grown fond of children's books. We take better care of our children than we do ourselves. We encourage our children to eat their vegetables whether we do ourselves or not. We encourage them to play outside whether we exercise or not. We care about what they are allowed to read, while we read trash.
We should be concerned about what our children read. Reading is an intimate experience. When we read, we let someone else come inside our brains, walk around, and leave things. Sticks and stones can break your bones, but books can change the way you think. We are right to care about the sorts of things our children invite into their minds, and this concern has led to a children's literature that's better in many respects than what is supposed to be "adult" literature.
I was converted to children's books in stages, as my children started being interested in reading, but the final step-the icing on the cake-was a book entitled The Giver, by Lois Lowry. It can be read in a few hours, but that does not decrease its impact, which is something like that of a sledgehammer. It is the story of a boy named Jonas who lives in what seems to be an ideal world. There is no crime, no hunger, and no dissatisfaction. Everyone is in the profession that best suits his talents. It appears to be ideal. The Greeks had a word for a place like this, and that word was "Utopia". It shows the keen insight of those old Greeks that the word means "nowhere". Nowhere is perfect. Nowhere is without problems.
While the Community in which Jonas lives is without strife, it also lacks a great many other things. On the way to achieving the "perfect" community, certain sacrifices have been made. Jonas discovers this when he turns twelve and is assigned his life profession, The Receiver of Memories. Part of the price paid for utopia is loss of connection to the past. The children of the Community are not raised by their biological parents, but by foster parents who are deemed suitable for the job of parenting. After the children of the community are grown, they lose connection with their foster parents, so even family history is lost. One might think about the impact this would have on the situation in the Middle East. There wouldn't be any fighting for the Promised Land. The Promise would all be a part of the forgotten past. For those of us who would like to see peace, this notion might be quite appealing.
However, Lowry's insight is that a person without a past is a person without a future. While there is virtue to be had by living in the present in the metaphorical sense, living entirely in the present without connection to the Eternal is sterile.
Jonas's role as Receiver of Memory is necessary for the Community because basic survival does require some knowledge of the human past, but this knowledge is a great burden, as human history is full of pain. The Receiver of Memory remembers these unpleasant things so others won't have to. The decision was made to remove this unpleasantness from the Community's conscience. In reading this, I was reminded that some people shudder at the bloody passages in the Old Testament and regret their inclusion in the Bible. Sometimes fiction is not far from the truth.
But in forgetting pain, much that was pleasant has also been forgotten: Snow, sunny days, and the love of a family. Bad weather is inconvenient, and so the weather is controlled. Sexual yearnings cause problems, and so they are eliminated by taking a pill. Even love has been removed.
This brings up another theme of the book, the use of language. Children are continually urged to use language precisely. Once Jonas asks his foster father if he loves him and is told that love is a meaningless word. His foster father says that he is very fond of Jonas, but that he couldn't possibly love him because there is no such thing.
Yet we, the reader, know that there is such a thing, and in the course of gaining the memories of the community, Jonas discovers not on does love exists, but that he is capable of it in its deepest form.
Though there is never an explicit reference to religion, one might almost see The Giver as sequel to the story of the Fall of Man in the book of Genesis. In eating from the Tree of Knowledge, Man is separated from nature and separated from God. Mans knowledge of the universe and how to manipulate it enables him to control. The world shown in The Community in The Giver is one that logically follows from that separation. The Community controls everything, the weather, and the sexual urges of the young. The separation from nature is complete, and perhaps so is the separation from God.
The theologians have a name for the complete separation from God, and that name is "Hell." Hell is not usually presented as being so clean as the Community, nor its people as being so polite, but somehow I do believe that, like the Community, Hell is made-to-order by man.
The most frequent complaint that one sees about the book is about its ending. It would be an understatement of massive proportions to say that my twelve-year-old, the Middle-Child, found the ending to be very frustrating. However, it need not be if one takes it at face value, and that is all I am going to say.
The next time you would like a good, short read, and if you are tired of being force-fed someone else's sexual fantasies, let me recommend The Giver. If nothing else, it will make you think.

Rating:
Summary: I love this book!
Review: I've read it at least 5 times! It is sooooooo good!