Author: Lois Lowry
Title: The Giver
Genre: Chapter book
Subgenre: Young Adult
Theme: Feelings are powerful, and what makes us human.
Primary and Secondary Characters: Jonas and the Giver
Award and date of publication: Newberry Award Winner, published in 1993.
Publishing Company: Houghton Mifflin Company
Jonas lives in this community where people do not think on their own. In this community there is a committee that matches marriages together by compatibility. These couple are assigned two kids, one of each gender. In this community the people can not have any emotion or feeling, they have to watch what they say, and the world is pretty much mapped out for them. When Jonas turns twelve he is given a job as a receiver. It is the receivers job to hold keep the memories and feelings away from the people. There is a receiver who teaches him how to perform his job, and his name is the Giver. The Giver helps Jonas store these memories, and deal with these foreign feelings. The first memories are happy memories, that Jonas enjoys. However, soon enough he was given memories of grief, loneliness, and despair. He has never felt these feelings before. The community is denied these feelings. Once Jonas started realizing there is another way of living he decides, everyone should experience these feelings and become individuals. With the Givers approval Jonas decides to flee his town and run away to another town, so the memories will be lost. Once the memories are lost the town will be able to get these feelings back. Jonas went on a hard, long, difficult journey to lose these memories, and give this gift to his town. In the end, he accomplishes this dreadful task.
This is a good book to read to students and to express how wonderful feelings are. Each feeling that we have expresses the way we feel, and this is what makes us human.
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