The Giver

Lois Lowry

ISBN 0-440-21907-8

Read 2002 September 17-18

Reviewed 2004 January 12

At least it’s a fast read. This is one of the assigned books in about the sixth grade. I read it about the same time John did. I think we originally bought it for Viannah.

It’s about a strictly controlled community in which everything from birth to death is fastidiously regulated and prescribed. Kids get bikes at age 8 and jobs at age 12. Jonas, our hero will be the next “Giver”. He has no job but to learn all there is to know from the past Giver and advise the community. He can know things that none others do, including what it means to “retire” or be unwanted.

In the end, he witnesses, at his own request, the death of an unwanted twin. That would be too confusing for the well structured community so the baby is “retired” by Jonas’ own father, whose job it is to do such things. Jonas then rebels and kidnaps another kid who, not doing well, is scheduled next day for his own “retirement”. He rides his bike probably hundreds of miles for many days to safety. Or is safety just hallucination? He faints in the snow.

Interesting concepts these, in the genre of Fahrenheit 451.