The Giver

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Houghton Mifflin, 1993.  Tr. $17.00, ISBN 978-0395645666

What’s it about?

Jonas’s world seems like a utopia at first glance—no war, no poverty, no unemployment—but when he is assigned the role of the Receiver of Memories, he begins to learn that the sameness his society strives for has an ugly side. 

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Jonas’s world is free of pain and miseries like hunger and poverty. People are considerate, orderly, and daily life holds no surprises. Anything that disrupts the Sameness is a threat, and people who disrupt the Sameness are Released. Release is what happens when a member of society cannot meet the standards of the Community. Perhaps they’ve broken too many rules. Perhaps they are Old. Maybe they are infants that haven’t thrived. What happens when people are released is vague.  They are said to go Elsewhere.  The Community is so orderly that every person is assigned their role in the community in an important ceremony at the age of 12. Some, like Jonas’s father are Nurturers, given the task of caring for the newchildren. Some are Laborers, Birthmothers, Architects—and one, Jonas, is assigned the incredible and difficult role of Receiver of Memories. His assignment is so special that he is the first in 10 years to be assigned this role. There is only one other Receiver of Memories, and now that Jonas has been selected for this role, he is the Giver. Through his training with the Giver, Jonas learns of a time when terrible things like pain and war existed. He also learns that when these terrible things existed, there were also wonderful things, such as love, perception of color, animals, grandparents, weather and more aspects of a rich and varied existence. He begins to long for the type of life people had before the Sameness, but he is conflicted about this wish. Isn’t everything perfect? There is no suffering, after all.  His opinion gradually begins to change, but the real turning point is when he witnesses the release of a baby twin, chosen because he was the smaller of the two by 6 ounces.

The Giver is a very disturbing book. It’s been banned and challenged countless times for its disturbing themes as well as references to sexuality (“stirrings”). The fact that it has the power to disturb us means it is hitting uncomfortably close to home. If this society had no resemblance to us, we would not treat this book seriously. There are references to infanticide of children who fail to thrive, which calls to mind people’s decisions to abort babies with genetic abnormalities.  There are references to euthanasia. To executing criminals (people who break the Community’s rules three times). What is amazing about the people in this society is that everyone is so complacent. They are content with Sameness, and threatened by anything that deviates, such as pilots who make errors, children who cry at night and identical twins.  No one misses love or other deep emotions because they know nothing about them. Only the Receiver of memories knows, and it is his burden to protect the Community from all these confusing feelings and memories. Lowry writes with heavy allegory, and the precise nature of how the Community has arrived at this state of Sameness is unclear. Lowry’s prose is simple, almost naïve sounding, which is fitting since the Community’s knowledge is so limited. The Giver and eventually Jonas have much greater experience and knowledge because of the memories they hold. Lowry conveys Jonas’s increased emotional awareness by introducing more complex descriptions about what Jonas experiences and thinks. The one complaint I’ve heard from people who love this book is ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. What really happened to Jonas and Gabe? Did they survive? Only readers who continue the trilogy and read the Messenger (the third book) find out what happened to them.  Lowry intentionally left their fates uncertain and said there is no correct interpretation about what happened to them, that how we interpret it depend on our own belief system.

Genre label: Dystopian Science Fiction

Reading level: 6^th grade

Interest level: Grades 5-10

Read-alikes:

Roth’s Divergent

Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

L’Engle A Wrinkle in Time

Huxley’s Brave New World

Subjects: Dystopian society, conformity, totalitarianism, euthanasia, infanticide, emotional depth, choice, memories, knowledge

Awards:

Newbery Medal (1994)

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book                

Series information:

Gathering Blue

The Messenger 

Anastasia Krupnik

Lowry, Lois. Anastasia Krupnik. Houghton Mifflin, 1979. Tr. $13.95, ISBN 0-395-28629-8.

What’s it about?

Meet Anastasia Krupnik, a smart, quirky aspiring poet who documents the important things that happen during her tenth year, which is destined to be momentous.  

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Sensitive, quirky ten-year-old Anastasia Krupnik, daughter of a published poet and college professor and an artist, both slightly eccentric as well, keeps a list of the most important things that happened the year she was ten, and an ever-changing list of things she loves and things she hates. She is determined that the arrival of her baby brother will be terrible, and places babies in the “Things I Hate” column. Some things she goes back and forth on—her crush Washburn Cummings and her parents for instance—and she decides she has a mercurial temperament.  One thing she has always hated was her name. When she find out that Catholics get to choose a Saint’s name at confirmation, she decides she will become a Catholic—until she finds out that Catholics must confess their sins (even secret bad thoughts).  When she discovers that her mother is pregnant, she feels betrayed and decides to give her new brother the worst name ever.

Anastasia is a very well-drawn, flawed and engaging character. The humor of this book is subtle and intelligent. Anastasia crafts a magnificent, modernist poem that conveys the sounds and look of creatures that live in tidepools after dark. Instead of being stunned by her gift and precociousness, Mrs. Westvessel gives her an F because the poem doesn’t rhyme or contain standard punctuation and capitalization.  In her class, directions must be followed, and she’d explained what she was expecting from the class. After Anastasia’s conversation with her father, the reader draws the conclusion that Mrs. Westvessel doesn’t understand everything she teaches. Although this book is largely light-hearted, Anastasia’s relationship and sadness about her frail and senile 92-year-old grandmother is very poignant and painful.  Anastasia also learns to recognize that she has misjudged some people in her life, including Mrs. Westvessel, who actually turns out to be very kind (albeit not the best teacher of poetry!). This is not one of Lowry’s best known works, but like everything she has written, it is a gem.  

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Humor

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-6

Subjects: Family relationships, Siblings

Read-alikes:

Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy

Series information:

Anastasia Again (1981)

Anastasia at Your Service (1982)

Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst (1984)

Anastasia on Her Own (1985)

Anastasia Has the Answers (1986)

Anastasia’s Chosen Career (1987)

Anastasia at this Address (1991)

Anastasia Absolutely (1995)

Related series (features Anastasia’s younger brother Sam):

All About Sam (1988)

Attaboy, Sam! (1992)

See You Around, Sam! (1996)

Zooman Sam (1999)