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* by Lois Lowry, 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 detai...

Man oh man, for a children's book...Lois 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, or sad. "The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without color, pain, or past." However, what appears perfect on the s...

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

*******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 people 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 learn a...

Stirring. In a futuristic utopian world, the 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 r...

If there are no wrong answers, can we really say that something has any meaning?It's incredibly easy to kick off an interesting sci-fi story. Just start with a mystery. Don't explain everything to the reader, leave them wondering. That way, everything seems interesting, intriguing, and worth exploring. Tap into the reader’s imagination and let them make your story interesting in ways you couldn't even imagine, let alone create. That's a great plan for starting a science fiction story. Loads of t...

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 Lil...

I've taught *The Giver* 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...

Lois Lowry's "The Giver" is perhaps the best takedown I've seen in ages of a popular philosophy of pain, one that crops up in the media and even in *some* versions of Buddhism. It's the idea that pain is the ultimate evil, so to eliminate suffering we have to ditch desire and individuality. Self is an illusion that only brings pain; desire and agency are dangerous, so we should give them up and join the cosmic oneness for "enlightenment," finding a utopia without pain. As George Lucas unfortunat...

Lowry's "The Giver" is practically nationalist propaganda, using oversimplification, emotional manipulation, and black-and-white morality to shut down the reader's ability to think critically. What's even more concerning is that it targets children, who haven't yet developed the critical thinking skills to defend themselves from such sneaky tactics. It's a poor book review, to be honest.Predictably, Lowry uses the structure of the hero's journey, blurring the lines between a spiritual quest and ...