The Giver by Lois Lowry
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Book Reviews of The Giver
Book Review: The Reciver Of Memory
Summary: 5 Stars
The GiverBy: Lois Lowry
Reviewed by: W. Horng
Per.6
This book is about a young boy who, suprisingly, got the most important and rare job, the Reciever of Memory. At the Ceremony of Twelve, every twleve year old boys and girls get the job of their life. They usually get the job that they wanted the most. Jonas was called on last and was announced the Reciver of Memory. The Receiver's job is to store all of the memory of a person including pain, love, hate, and etc. Jonas's townspeople doesn't have any feelings and their life are always predictable.
I like this book because it has adventures and the part about a person keeping all of the memory that no one else has. Tht's pretty cool, however, then you'll have to be a loner of some kind because you can't share any of your memory and you can't talk to your parents about it either. The other trouble of being a reciver of Memory is the bad memories that are like nightmares! I wouldn't want to be a Reciver because I want to share my feelings with my family and I can not hide them to myself.
My favorite part of the book is when Jonas got his first happy memory. The Reciver all get a set of rules. Guess what, in one of the rules, the Reciver can lie to anybody if he has to, he can even lie to his parents! "He had never, within his memory, been tempted to lie." That's what Jonas thought about lying to people. After a few more trainings, Jonas is starting to see colors. The first color that Jonas saw was red. Jonas loved every class going to the House of the Old and getting a new and happy memory, until now....
That's when the part that I dislike comes up. The memories are not all good, there are always some bad ones. The first bad memory that the Giver gave to Jonas was the pain of sunburn, then the pain of falling down, breaking your leg,and scraping your face against jagged egdes of ice. This is Jonas's feelings when he first got the pain of breaking a leg: "He sat, and looked at his own leg, where it lay stright on the bed, unbroken. The brutal slice of pain was gone. But the leg ached horribly, still, and his face felt raw." If you think that's overwhelming, wait until Jonas first got the memory of war. The experience was frightning, people running for their lives, orphans crying over their family member's death, and soldiers dying at war. Now that's overwhelming for me. Think about it, you even have to carry that memory around you for the rest of your life until you transfer your memory to a new Reciver of Memory.
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: 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: Greg Hourani
Summary: 5 Stars
The Giver, by Lois Lowery, is about a boy named Jonas that is living an average life in a perfect town. He has a mom, a dad, a sister named Lily, and a best friend named Asher. His life was fine until he starts seeing unusual things. In his town when you reach a certain age, you get or earn the right to do something. At the age of 8 you start learning new jobs such as being a planter, birth mother, and doctor. The boards of elders choose a job for you at the age of 12. You have to apply for a wife or husband. If you are able to get one they choose it for you. You have to apply for children just like getting a wife or husband. When he was 12 he was chosen as the receiver of memory. This is a very rare and is also a very big accomplishment. Ten years before, he was selected to be the receiver. A girl had been selected before him but she was a failure. She was released from the town and her name was to be never spoken of again. That is the worst thing that can ever happen to a person from their town. Jonas went to work and when he got there, there was an old looking man sitting in a chair. The man said that he is older looking then he actually is. He said he wanted to be called the giver. He explained what the job is like and said that it would be hard and painful, but it was very important. The giver told him to lie down and to take off his shirt, so Jonas did so. Then the giver put his hands on Jonas's back and Jonas felt a cold feeling. The Giver was transferring memory to Jonas of him riding a sled down a hill in the snow. In his town there was no such thing as snow or hills At first it made him mad that his town choose to not to have snow or hills, but the giver told him why they didn't have them and then Jonas under stood. A few days later he told he giver about the strange things he had been seeing. The giver told him he had started seeing in color. There was also no such thing as color in his town only back white and gray. Jonas was mad again at why his town did that and the giver told him why they did. The giver would transfer memories of color to Jonas. Jonas liked that a lot. I don't want to tell you the whole story because I want you to find out for yourself if Jonas can fulfill his job as the receiver and find out if he will get marred. I recommend this book because it is like an alternate world. It is neat to see what it is like. Lois Lowry is very descriptive in the giver and you will never know what will happen next. I want to read more books from Lois Lowry because of this bookBook Review: The Giver
Summary: 5 Stars
Synopsis
The Giver is a captivating story that takes place in the future in a perfect society -no pain, no crime, no unhappiness, no sickness. Jonas, the main character, is eleven years old at the beginning of the novel. He is "apprehensive" for the Ceremony of Twelve. This is when Jonas will receive his assignment that will be a significant factor for the remainder of his life. Jonas is stunned to find out that he was selected to become the new Receiver. He is given private training from the Giver, who holds the memories of what past. These memories include color, cold and snow, war, and family life of the past. Once the Giver transmits these memories to Jonas, they belong to him. Overtime, Jonas comes to understand and detest the perfect world he lives in. Together, the Giver and Jonas come up with a plan to change how their community works. However, before they carry it out, Jonas is forced to make a frightful decision.
Evaluation
The Giver is a thought-provoking book about a fictional futuristic society. This book is told from a third-person-limited point of view. The fast-pace chapters and clever writing make this remarkable book a page turner. The characters are three-dimensional and their actions are surprising and at times frightening. Lowry does an excellent job in portraying the themes of "balancing the values of freedom and security" (Flowers, 1993). In this world of "sameness" there is no differentiation of human rights and choices of freedom. Everything is controlled from family units, jobs, and emotions. The cliffhanger ending leaves readers wondering and questioning what really happens to Jonas. After reading this book students ages 9 through 12 will have a greater appreciation of the freedom of choice which they have and the importance of having the opportunity to learn from the knowledge of the past. There is much controversy and criticism of this book and its themes. Some possible concerns are that there are mild sexual references and a scene where Jonas witnesses his father euthanizing a baby by injecting it with a needle in the head. Although The Giver won the Newbery Medal in 1994 and is used in many middle schools, it does appear on many banned book lists. If you enjoy this book don't miss out on Lowry's Gathering Blue (2000) and Messenger (2004), two other books set in this same futuristic setting.
References
Flowers, A. (1993). The Giver. Horn Book Magazine, 69(4), 458-458.