By Lois Lowry Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Dystopia/Science Fiction THE GIVER

LOIS LOWRY Lois Lowry is an American writer credited with more than thirty children's books and an autobiography. She has won two Newbery Medals, for Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in 1994.

SETTING Future Small town (similar to “Island Civilization” idea of small communities with no contact with each other)

MAIN CHARACTER: JONAS 12 years old Becomes “The Receiver,” a very valuable job in the community where he learns about the past and provides advice during troubling times. Must get all the knowledge from “The Giver” who tells him/has him experience more than he ever thought possible (colors, feelings, life before everything was “better”)

CONFLICT/PLOT After hearing about the way life was, and experiencing a life-changing event that makes him look at his father differently, Jonas is conflicted about whether or not he wants to stay in the community. He makes a decision that will alter his life (and everyone else’s in the community) forever.

MOOD Ominous Thought-provoking Suspenseful

THEME Be wary of changing things to make them “perfect.” You never know how changing one thing might lead to disastrous consequences. Do not let the government take too much control.

LIKE/DISLIKE Loved the suspense of the book; it was very thought-provoking; the book made me questions some of the changes that are occurring now where we think things are changing for the better, but they may not be. Not a fan of the ending; it was too abrupt and ambiguous.

MEMORABLE PASSAGE “You’re beginning to see the color red.” “The what?” The Giver sighed. “How to explain this? Once, back in the time of the memories, everything had a shape and size, the way things still do, but they also had a quality called color. There were lots of colors, and one of them was called red…There was a time, actually- you’ll see this in memories later-when flesh was many different colors. That was before we went to Sameness. Today, flesh is all the same…Our people made that choice to go to Sameness…We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences.”

RECOMMENDATION I would definitely recommend this book to others who like science fiction, books set in the future, and/or dystopias because of the themes and storyline.