Review 8 The Giver

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell for Young Readers, 1994. Print.

Citation:

The Giver tells the story of Jonas who lives in the Community.  In the Community “sameness” is the operating principle.  All members know what they are to do and not to do.  There are no real choices for them to make.  When Jonas comes of age (12) he receives his job assignment for life.  However Jonas is chosen to be The Receiver for his community.  This is a strange new thing for Jonas and what he is about to learn in his job as Receiver in training will open his eyes to the truth about the Community.  Jonas will learn that what seems perfect on the surface comes at a very steep price. 

Justification for Nomination:

The Giver is a well written book and at 180 pages it is not a hard book to get through.  Lois Lowry has packed a lot into those pages.  The story of the community unfolds at first as a happy and peaceful (if not a tad dull) place to live.  As the reader learn more about the Community through the eyes of Jonas the reader comes to realize what a soulless place the community is.  After I finished reading The Giver I found myself thinking more and more about it.  It has what all great books have and that is the power to stay with you.  The Giver is constantly being challenged for banning.  I am not sure why.  I do not think I will ever understand why.  While the Community is the end point of conformity and groupthink (I think George Orwell would have loved this book) and seems to be the apex of social control the book is hardly an advocate for this lifestyle.  Likewise the objections to the depictions and concepts of euthanasia are not advocated, in fact , I think this book speaks strongly for individualism and freedom of thought and deed,  I can think of no book I have read that argues and discusses these ideas in such an accessible way.  No young reader who reads this book is going to turn into a soulless state controlled pawn or want to live that way.  The Giver forces the reader to think about all the things taken for granted; freedom of thought and deed, memories both good and bad, and the right to exist in the manner that the individual sees fit.  The Giver deserves to be nominated for a Printz award because it is a story that will take little time to read but will stay with the reader for a long time.  

Genre:

Sci-Fi (Dystopian), Coming of Age