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Jonas lives in a world with no pain, no fear, no love, no happiness, a world without feelings. When a child turns 12 he/she is assigned a job. When you grow too old to be in the community you are released. Everything is controlled, all choices are made for you. At Jonas's year 12 ceremony he is signaled out to receive special training from the Giver, therefor becoming the new Receiver, keeper of all memories. Jonas is given many memories some of which are: the memory of pain, of fear, of weather, of love, of happiness. Jonas slowly begins to realize that the community he lives in is unfair. No one has actual feelings. Compared to Jonas and his newly acquired feelings, everyone seems like robots. Jonas wants the rest of the community to have feelings too, to have freedom, to truly experience life as Jonas knows it is supposed to be lived. Jonas knows the world he lives in is wrong, but can he change it? Very unlikely.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves science fiction or books about the future. The Giver isn't a difficult read, you just have to read between the lines, and the whole concept can be hard to grasp. This is a truly amazing book, lots of action, detail, and suspense. The 4/5 grade class that I'm in read this book as a book club book, so it's appropriate for 4th graders. The only less "age appropriate" parts are when Jonas is bathing a elderly woman and when he has a dream caused by the stirrings (puberty), but even those parts really aren't bad. The Giver really makes you think about the world we live in today, how fortunate, and unfortunate we really are. How our world is controlled. Even if you do not like the plot outline, I would still recommend this book, it is a very short read, why not give it a shot?
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The Giver by Lois Lowry
Ally222, June 7, 2009
Jonas lives in a world with no pain, no fear, no love, no happiness, a world without feelings. When a child turns 12 he/she is assigned a job. When you grow too old to be in the community you are released. Everything is controlled, all choices are made for you. At Jonas's year 12 ceremony he is signaled out to receive special training from the Giver, therefor becoming the new Receiver, keeper of all memories. Jonas is given many memories some of which are: the memory of pain, of fear, of weather, of love, of happiness. Jonas slowly begins to realize that the community he lives in is unfair. No one has actual feelings. Compared to Jonas and his newly acquired feelings, everyone seems like robots. Jonas wants the rest of the community to have feelings too, to have freedom, to truly experience life as Jonas knows it is supposed to be lived. Jonas knows the world he lives in is wrong, but can he change it? Very unlikely.I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves science fiction or books about the future. The Giver isn't a difficult read, you just have to read between the lines, and the whole concept can be hard to grasp. This is a truly amazing book, lots of action, detail, and suspense. The 4/5 grade class that I'm in read this book as a book club book, so it's appropriate for 4th graders. The only less "age appropriate" parts are when Jonas is bathing a elderly woman and when he has a dream caused by the stirrings (puberty), but even those parts really aren't bad. The Giver really makes you think about the world we live in today, how fortunate, and unfortunate we really are. How our world is controlled. Even if you do not like the plot outline, I would still recommend this book, it is a very short read, why not give it a shot?
(2 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)