Book description
It's a perfect world, where everything looks right. But ugly truths lie
beneath the surface…
It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in The
Community wants for anything. Everyone is provided for. Each Family Unit
is entitled to one female and male child. Each member of The Community
has their profession carefully chosen for them by the Committee of
Elders, and they never make a mistake.
Jonas, a sensitive twelve-year-old boy, had never thought there was
anything wrong with his Community, until one day. From the moment Jonas
is selected as the Receiver of Memory at The Ceremony, his life is never
the same. Jonas discovers that The Community is not as perfect as it
seems. Although they appear to have everything, they are missing
something of great importance. It is up to Jonas, with the help of the
Giver, to find what long ago had been lost. And so Jonas embarks on an
adventure to save the world as he knows it.
Simply and beautifully written, The Giver is sure to touch the heart of
every reader. Lois Lowry deals with issues of everyday life that are so
often taken for granted. Through the noble character of Jonas, she
presents a glimpse of what could be the future. As the tension in the
novel mounts, so does the number of questions that Lowry confronts the
reader with. The Giver is a book of courage and adventure, and most
importantly, one of deep thought. Once readers make contact with Lowry's
treasure, they may never see things exactly quite the same. Lowry
presents a forceful novel that demands to be heard and philosophically
dealt with. “Lowry is once again in top form - raising many questions
while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers."
Publishers Weekly,15 February. 1993: 240
"The Giver, a powerful and provocative novel, is sure to keep
older children reading and thinking." New York Times, 31 Oct. 1993:
26. Lois Lowry, author of over twenty novels and twice winner of the
Newbery Medal (for The Giver and Number the Stars), was born on 20 March
1937 in Hawaii. Her father was an Army dentist and the family lived all
over the world. Now divorced, she lives in West Cambridge with her dog,
Bandit, and spends weekends in her nineteenth-century farmhouse in New
Hampshire.
