shopping cart
Call us: 800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Powell's Q&A, Q&A | June 29, 2009

Janna Cawrse Esarey: IMG Powell's Q&A: Janna Cawrse Esarey

0 comments By Janna Cawrse Esarey

"I fell in love with Crosby, Stills, and Nash's song 'Southern Cross' when I was fifteen. By the time I got to college, 'I'm going to sail around the world someday' was sort of my pickup line." Continue »
  1. $10.50 Sale Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Motion of the Ocean: 1 Small Boat, 2 Average Lovers, and a Woman's Search for the Meaning of Wife

    Janna Cawrse Esarey

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

The Giver Cover

ISBN13: 9780395645666
ISBN10: 0395645662
All Product Details

Only 3 left in stock at $16.00!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community.

Review:

"In a departure from her well-known and favorably regarded realistic works, Lowry has written a fascinating, thoughtful science-fiction novel. The story takes place in a nameless, utopian community, at an unidentified future time. Although life seems perfect — there is no hunger, no disease, no pollution, no fear — the reader becomes uneasily aware that all is not well. The story is skillfully written; the air of disquiet is delicately insinuated; and the theme of balancing the values of freedom and security is beautifully presented."

Review:

"Wrought with admirable skill — the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly provocative novel."
back to top

About the Author

Lois Lowry is known for her versatility and invention as a writer. She was born in Hawaii and grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, and Japan. After several years at Brown University, she turned to her family and to writing. She is the author of more than thirty books for young adults, including the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Readers Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER. Her first novel, A SUMMER TO DIE, was awarded the International Reading Associations Childrens Book Award. Ms. Lowry now divides her time between Cambridge and an 1840s farmhouse in Maine. To learn more about Lois Lowry, see her website at www.loislowry.com
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 8 comments:
shoemaker.01, June 7, 2009 (view all comments by shoemaker.01)
When Jonas figured out the truth about his community he was shocked, stunned and it changed his point of view on everything. The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is a very unique book for young adult readers. I liked this book because I thought that it had a very interesting plot and good characters. However, I disliked this book because I thought it was a little inappropriate for elementary school readers and it was hard to understand.

The book is about a boy named Jonas. He is a 12 year old boy who is assigned a very special job in his community. He doesn’t like this job and he sets out to do whatever he can to fix his community. Jonas’s world has a very interesting system that they need to follow. This is much different then our system in the sense that everything is controlled, how many children you have, what job you get, EVERYTHING. Jonas gets the job of Receiver of Memories’, a very important job, but one that he thinks is wrong and doesn’t like.
I would recommend this book because it makes you appreciate what we have in our society. I think it is most appropriate for 6th grade or older.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(0 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Luisa Moran, March 19, 2008 (view all comments by Luisa Moran)
The giver is one of the famous book because it show to kinds what it is a responsibilities. This book get my attention because this book show you that you don't need all the thing to live happy and safe. Also is nice book because it teach you how to become a better person and how to be a lider. This book is well written, with fast pace and show you some dimentiones. Also shows that is no crime, no violence, no war, and no color does are some things that it make the book very interesting and the best one for me.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(6 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
westonkintz, April 15, 2007 (view all comments by westonkintz)
First off: The Giver is a great book, don't get me wrong, but when your a fantasy reader reading a fiction book in class at school, It doesn't help you to get interested.

It had great stuff, but it is a one-time-read book
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(6 of 15 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
View all 8 comments
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780395645666
Author:
Lowry, Lois
Publisher:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
Author:
Lowry, Lois
Location:
Boston :
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Friendship
Subject:
Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
Subject:
Children's 12-Up - Fiction - General
Subject:
Science fiction
Subject:
Social Situations - Emotions & Feelings
Subject:
Social Situations - Values
Subject:
Children's 12-Up - Fiction - Science Fiction
Subject:
Social Issues - Values
Subject:
Memory
Subject:
Fantasy & Magic
Copyright:
1993
Edition Description:
Trade Cloth
Series Volume:
no. 3
Publication Date:
April 1993
Binding:
Hardcover
Grade Level:
from 7
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
192
Dimensions:
8.53x5.76x.80 in. .81 lbs.
Age Level:
12-16
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. $4.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    The View from Saturday

    E L Konigsburg
  2. $3.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Maniac Magee

    Jerry Spinelli
  3. $7.25 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    A Single Shard

    Linda Sue Park
  4. $8.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    The Tale of Despereaux

    Kate Dicamillo
  5. $2.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Julie of the Wolves (Julie Series)

    Jean Craighe George
  6. $3.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Midwife's Apprentice

    Karen Cushman
back to top

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.