Jonas is an 11-year-old boy living in what he believes is an idyllic community. Crime is low, and everyone is assigned jobs that they love. When Jonas turns 12, he will finally learn what role he is to fulfill in the community.When I was a child, I read The Giver, and I loved it. As an adult, I read The Giver and loved it even more. Where do I begin with this one? First, as a dystopian novel, this book rocks. It doesn’t speak down to you or drone on and on about minute details. As someone who is...

Man oh man, for a children's book...Lowry certainly didn't pull any punches. Jonas lives in a perfectly perfect world. Every family has one mother, one father, one girl and one boy. Families always get along, the parents never disagree, no one has any secrets. Everyone contributes to society equally. No one is ever outraged, angry, sad. "The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past." However what appears perfect on the surface hi...

4.5 HOLY STARS!I don't remember reading a book as fast as I read this one.It was a great read.I couldn't put the book down for hours.And I must say is different from other books that I have read so this review actually is going to be somehow different from others.So let's start.I enjoyed the beginning , maybe because it looked like dystopian kind of book and as you may know I love dystopian books.Also the colorless nature and emotionless were things that made me to continue read the book.This is...

*******SPOILER ALERT*******“I don't know what you mean when you say 'the whole world' or 'generations before him.'I thought there was only us. I thought there was only now.” Read the book, watch the movie, experience the synergy. We don’t live in a dystopian world, but we do have a growing number of our population who believe that all that exists is NOW, that history is irrelevant, and that there is no future. It simplifies existence when a person can convince themselves of this. No need to ...

Stirring. In a futuristic utopian world, Community has reached maximum peace and stability. With all types of emotions eradicated from daily life, people live in perfect harmony, and without any kind of pain. Everyone in the Community has everything they need and a designated purpose in life. On the day of the Ceremony of Twelve, the day younglings are assigned their future life roles, twelve years old Jonas is set apart from the group. He’s to become the Receiver of Memories, the unique recip...

If there are no wrong answers, can we really say that something has any meaning?It is very easy to start an interesting science fiction story. Simply begin with a mystery. Don't explain things to the reader and leave them in a state of wonder. In this way, everything will seem interesting, intriguing, and worth exploring. Tap into the reader’s powers of imagination and allow them to make your story interesting in ways you need not imagine, and perhaps cannot create. This is a good plan for start...

I think I'm missing something. Everyone loves this book and I liked it too, but it wasn't amazing or anything.The Giver felt like a very sparse story to me. First, there isn't much characterization, so I didn't form an emotional connection with any of the characters -- not even with Jonas or the Giver (two central characters). Asher and Fiona (particularly Fiona) are introduced such that you assume they will play greater roles in the book than they do. I don't feel like I knew Mom or Dad or Lily...

I've taught this book to my 6th graders nine years in a row. Once I realized that the book is actually a mystery, and not the bland sci-fi adventure it seemed at first skim, I loved it more and more each time. Nine years, two classes most years... 17 TIMES. I've come to see that the book isn't the story of a depressing utopia. It's the story of the relationship between the main characters the Giver, Jonas, and... I won't say her name. And of course, the baby Gabe.Every year, as we read the book ...

This book is perhaps the best refutation that I have seen in some time of a common philosophy of pain that is sometimes found in the popular media and in some versions of Buddhism. According to this philosophy, pain is the ultimate evil, and so, to eliminate pain and suffering we must give up desire, and individuality. Self is an illusion, and leads to pain; desire and agency are dangerous, so we should give them up and join the cosmic oneness "enlightenment" to find a utopia without pain. As Ge...

Lowry's book is a piece of nationalist propaganda, using oversimplification, emotional appeals, and dualistic morality to shut down her readers' minds. More troubling is that it is aimed at children, who don't yet have the critical faculties to defend themselves from such underhanded methods.Unsurprisingly, Lowry adopts the structure of the monomyth, equating a spiritual journey with a moral one. Her Christ-figure uses literal magic powers to rebel against his society. This rebellion and the mor...