The Giver
by Lois Lowry
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Book Reviews of The Giver
Book Review: "The Giver" Book Review
Summary: 5 Stars
Jonas was born into a perfect community. In a society where there is no unemployment, criminals, or poor people. Everything is perfect, and everyone is happy. In this world people are assigned to their spouse, and children are assigned to couples if the Committee of Elders believes the couple is qualified. All families in this community consist of a mother, a father, a male child, and a female child. Once a person in the community gets too old they move to the House of Elders, where they live until they are "released" from the community. A person can also file for "release" if he or she no longer wants to continue to live in the community.
This year Jonas will become twelve years old. Becoming twelve is an important year for all children within this society. It is important because that is the year when all the "twelves" receive notice of their occupations in the community and begin their training. The Committee of Elders decides the careers for each child that will turn twelve in that year at a ceremony performed in front of the entire community. Jonas is given his job title last. He is assigned to be the Receiver of Memory, which is the most important job within the community. His job is to receive the memories held by The Giver in order for Jonas to become The Giver of Memory himself someday. His training is secretive and can be painful or pleasurable. The Giver transfers his memories of all things including love, color sensation, sledding in the snow, and war. Memories such as war can cause Jonas to have pain. On the other hand memories like sledding can be exciting for Jonas.
Jonas' training will take much time to be completed because there are an abundance of memories to be transferred. The purpose of The Giver is to hold all the memories so the people of the society do not have to experience the bad memories or have the burden of holding memories. For instance, Jonas training is dramatic and he grows wiser. Jonas realizes there is more to life than just the community where Jonas lives. The author has shaped a creative plot that is fascinating and intriguing due to the creative plot with the concept of one person holding all the memories for everyone within a community.
Written for young adults, The Giver convoys a positive and outgoing mood due to the fact that the society in which Jonas lives is protected and perfect. That memories are valuable and precious is a central theme in this book. It is important for people to experience a great variety of things and cherish their memories and experiences.
Book Review: The Giver
Summary: 4 Stars
The Giver
Lowery, Lois
Published by Laurel Leaf (2002)
Reading Level: 6.5
192 Pages
Youth Science Fiction
In this captivating story, a young boy named Jonas struggles to come to terms with his own specialness, his community's secrets, and the full range of human experience. Jonas lives in a community where everything is carefully planned and carefully controlled. There is no suffering or discomfort, but likewise no joy and little individuality. Children are assigned to families, mates are chosen by a committee of elders, and the weather is always comfortable. The people's lives proceed in a course prescribed by the community's elders, marked by routine, ritual and procedure. With the passage of one such ritual, The Ceremony of Twelve, the youth of the community are assigned to a profession. As his friends begin preparing for their new adult roles in the community, Jonas embarks on an altogether different journey.
Jonas has always known himself to be a bit different from his peers, and at his Ceremony of Twelve, he is chosen as the Receiver of Memories. As such, he is charged with holding all of the human memories passed from previous generations, so that the others in the community might be shielded from them. And so- bit by bit- Jonas begins to receive these memories from the pervious Receiver, an old man now know as the Giver. With these memories comes a whole range of emotions, good and bad, and wisdom well beyond his years. Armed with these insights, and the access granted to him as the Receiver, Jonas begins to see his community in a whole new way.
This book is a wonderful read for young people or adults. It dramatically addresses the issues with which adolescents are already familiar: feeling deeply, leaving childhood behind, and questioning the rules of their upbringing. It challenges the mind to consider issues of conformity and rebellion, and the infinite pros and cons of the human condition. The reader must wrestle with the questions like "is the absence of unpleasantness really happiness?", "is getting rid of sadness and pain worth it if it means giving up things like love and creativity?", and "how far will people go to preserve harmony and avoid unpleasantness?". These questions challenge and extend young minds, but may be a bit complex for young readers. Additionally, the mood and subject matter of the book are quite dark at times, and may be upsetting to some. Overall, however, this is an intellectually and emotionally engaging book that I found hard to put down!
Book Review: A Cool Kid Frum Ballwin Missouri at LSMS
Summary: 5 Stars
With sameness in a community, no one can experience real pain. In The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, no one has inflicted pain on him or her. Even if they fall off their bike they have never felt it. In the ending I think that he went to a community that actually has pain and suffering. He also hasn't heard music before. He has only heard it in his memories. With these memories that are giver by the giver, he has to suffer with them.
I think that the ending really implies that he has re-entered his old community. They have taken in the memories while he was gone. Just like when Rosemary "Released" herself and the community got all of the lost memories. With these new memories, they have been able to see the colors and feel love. Now they have opened a door to the past that is a memory. These memories are the key for how they survive.
I recommend this book to a person that has really good imagination. With this imagination, you can understand the ending very well and that is why I have comprehended the ending. The ending is a little hard to understand because of the sudden stop that is on the last page, it just says all of the things about the community, and it never states what the community says or does to him. The ending is very hard to understand, but I think I chose the right one. I chose this ending because there have been many hints to describe it. For example, the planes just stopped coming. I think that someone had seen them when they had that really close encounter. Another reason is that they had described many curves in the road. This has given an obvious reason that they had gone in a circle. He had also said that he had recognized the face in the crowd. That makes it just plain obvious that he had come back to his old community when he saw this.
I think that Lois Lowry should come out with The Giver 2. In this book she should write about the new community. This should put a better ending on the book. Then people wouldn't think this book is so weird. I'm not saying that this book is bad or anything, I'm just saying that this book was had to understand for some people.
If this book were banned from all schools, then the people wouldn't know what it would be like to be in this kind of community. If this book is banned, then many books like this will be banned. For example, a book with Hitler in it will be banned. If this book is banned, then people won't learn about history and a book that talks about drugs or war will be banned. If this happens then the whole world will change.
Book Review: The Giver
Summary: 4 Stars
The GiverBy: Lois Lowry
Reviewed by: E. Lee
Period: 5
In this book, Jonas, the main character, lives in a perfect world. Here, all the people are assigned jobs and there isn¡¯t any war or pain. As time goes by, Jonas becomes a Twelve and receives an assignment. As easy it may seem, Jonas becomes encouraged for it is a big change that is going to appear. Now as a Twelve, everyone is counting on him for he receives a special assignment. Jonas receives the assignment of being the next Receiver of Memory.
The reason why I like this book, The Giver, is that it showed the same experience as what I went through. In this book, Jonas goes through a stage where he receives a job that he has to complete. ¡° Jonas was identified as a possible Receiver many years ago. We have observed him meticulously. There were no dreams of uncertainty.¡± This reminds me of all the things I had to do as I reached a certain age. Every time I read this book, it showed me that even though you receive a job, you should always try to accomplish it without a complaint. In other words, this book showed me of all the burdens that might pull you down, but you should always try to do your best to release the burden. For that, The Giver was a book I was fond by.
Another reason The Giver was my favorite book is where this book took place. Here in the world where Jonas lives, the people can¡¯t feel pain. ¡° Jonas¡¯s world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain.¡± Also, the world is peaceful without a war to be insight. Comparing this world to the world we live in, there is a big difference. In our world, wars and pain are all felt by the citizens while in Jonas¡¯s world, they don¡¯t. It always seemed to come into my mind the fact that our world can¡¯t be in peace while Jonas¡¯s can. For this, I desire to live a world in peace and somewhere with out pain.
My favorite part would have to be when Jonas¡¯s friend, Asher, called ¡°snacks¡± ¡°smacks¡¯ when he was in hi Threes. Long ago, Asher wanted a snack for he was hungry. When he went to the Chief Elder, he asked, ¡° Can I have some smacks?¡± After that, all the other Threes started laughing and told Asher that it was ¡°snacks¡± not ¡°smacks¡±. This was my favorite part because when Asher said ¡°smacks¡±, I thought he wanted a slap. This was my favorite part for it provided a sense of humor as the book continued.
Book Review: The Giver
Summary: 4 Stars
Jonas lives in a perfect community; there is no pain or no pleasure. The families are selected by the elders. The elders also assign the jobs to them. Each person is assigned a job. Every year there is a ceremony and you become a year older. When you become twelve years of age, you become an adult and you are assigned a job. Jonas is now twelve, and is job is the receiver of memories. He is taking the place of the Giver. The giver was the last receiver of memory. He must now teach Jonas to be the receiver of memory. When he teaches him, he gives him memories of pain and pleasure. Jonas then learns about all of those things, and he realizes that even though they don't experience pain that they are missing many things in life like pleasure and such. Jonas wants to save the town. So he and the giver make a plan. The giver will stay back to help the town, and Jonas will run away. They do that and Jonas makes it to another plane with lights music pain and pleasure. I thought this was a good book. It had a good ending, it had a good story line, but some of it seemed impossible.
This book had a good ending. It was very happy, a lot of books have ending where it does not turn out good. But this one makes you feel good when you read it. After living in a horrible community like that, Jonas finally got to go to a better one. It describes how he hears music and singing, that's very warm feeling. Also it tells how he thought he heard music behind him which means that maybe his old community got better.
This book has a good story line. All the events are properly done. Plus I just basically like the book, and the way it goes. It is a pretty good idea. And it is very creative the way they made the town and all the customs of it. Also the jobs were well thought up, but mostly Jonas job, the receiver of memory.
The thing I didn't like about this book is having a community like that seems impossible to even imagine. Like every thing makes either pain or pleasure, I can understand the no color or music but to live you have to have pain or pleasure. Also being twelve years of age, you're not usually mature enough. So that was the only thing I really didn't like.
So I thought this was a good book. It had a little things wrong with it, but in the end I really liked it. I would probably read it again if I had time or there was a sequel. I recommend this book to other people that like reading. I rate it an 8 out of 10.
-J. Hamilton