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. 

Find out more:

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 

Hunger Games

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic press, 2008. Tr. $17.99, ISBN 978-0439023481.  

What’s it about?

The corrupt Capitol of Panem hosts an annual televised fight to the death, and its participants are 24 children from surrounding districts. When Katniss Everdeen’s little sister Prim is one of the unlucky ones chosen in the annual lottery, Katniss volunteers to take her place, knowing she must out-wit and out-maneuver the game’s creators in order to survive.

Find out more:

Hunger Games takes place in an imagined future United States, known as Panem. The novel opens when the 74^th annual Hunger Games are looming. Sixteen-year-old protagonist Katniss Everdeen of District 12 (the Appalachian region) is nervous about being reaped. If her name is drawn, she becomes one of 24 tributes, and must kill . . .  or be killed. Only one tribute will survive, and the odds are against her. Wealthier districts train career tributes who usually win these televised Games. District 12 tributes are long shots. When Katniss’s little sister Prim’s name is drawn, Katniss volunteers to take her place. To her horror, the other tribute is a fellow student, Peeta, a baker’s son who gave her bread when her family was facing starvation. In order to survive, Katniss will have to kill him and 22 others—unless she is able to outwit the game’s creators with the help of her clever, self-destructive mentor Haymitch, who knows how to survive the Games.

The power of Hunger Games stays with the reader hours, days, weeks, months, and years after reading. This is the kind of book people keep re-reading. This is the kind of book that opens the mouths of normally reticent individuals, who eagerly tell strangers to devour this disquieting dystopian novel. The plot is wonderfully crafted, and the arena is horrifyingly imagined. The characters, particularly the main characters Katniss, Haymith and Peeta are extremely well-drawn, flawed and believable, as are many of the secondary characters such as Gale and Rue. Critics mention the similarities of Collins’s plot to other books and series, particularly Battle Royale, but Collins takes the premise of a corrupt, totalitarian government using citizens harming citizens to keep its people in line and creates a powerful work that strays far from the bloated, over-written Battle Royale. Collins’s world-building and writing skills were apparent from her earlier Overlander Chronicles, so it comes as little surprise that she would turn out such a masterful twist on the dystopian plot staple of individuals versus a corrupt government.  

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Survivalist/Adventure

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 6-12, adults

Subjects: Government Corruption, Reality Shows, Person vs. Society, Survival, Brutality

Awards:

Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year (2008)

New York Times Notable Children’s Book of 2008

 Cybil Winner (2008)

On School Library Journal’s Best Books of 2008 list

Booklist Editor’s Choice (2008)

California Young Reader Medal (2011)

Read-alikes:

Grant’s Gone series

Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy

Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It trilogy

Roth’s Divergent

Orwell’s 1984

Huxley’s Brave New World

Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

Battle Royale (not recommended; very poor execution)

Series information:

Catching Fire (2009)

Mockingjay (2010)

View my book trailer for Hunger Games

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation

Bradbury, Ray. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation. Illustrated by Tim Hamilton. Hill and Wang, 2009. Paperback $16.95, ISBN 978-0-8090-5101-4.

What’s it about?

In fireman Guy Montag’s world, firemen burn books and have forgotten that firemen used to put out fires. When Guy begins to read the books he’s assigned to burn, he becomes the fire captain’s next target.

Find out more:

Welcome to Guy Montag’s world, where firemen don’t put out fires, they start them. These firemen burn books, which are considered a threat to society, a threat to the government, and a threat to the status quo, where people are told what to think about by the ubiquitous TV screens. Books are the most dangerous contraband in existence.  What kind of fireman would start hiding books and secretly reading them? Guy Montag, deeply affected by a strange girl who takes walks, tastes rains and rarely watches the TV screens that cover the parlor walls, begins to re-consider his profession and asks dangerous questions. When a woman is burned alive with her books, Guy is wracked with guilt—and curiosity. “There must be something in books . . .to make a woman stay in a burning house.”  He begins to rescue books from the burnings, and hides them in his home. He reads them, and begins to ask too many questions. People are scared by this, and report him to the fire captain who comes to Guys house for a book burning. Guy, an unwilling host, lashes out in defense, killing the fire captain, and becomes a wanted man. He flees the city and finds like-minded people, who, fearing the danger physical books hold, read, memorize and burn books, becoming “bums on the outside, libraries inside.”

Ray Bradbury’s classic novel about book burning and totalitarian government was adapted into a graphic novel format a few years ago.  This is an authorized adaptation, and holds the power and beauty of the novel. Hamilton’s artwork is striking and masterful, and in sync with the text.  The wordless panels are exquisite, which show not only Hamilton’s skill but how deeply the story resonates with him. Toward the beginning of the story, when Guy meets his new neighbor, Clarisse, who helps him re-connect with the world, there is a scene where the two are talking in the rain. Clarisse explains that sometimes she just likes to tilt her head back and let the rain fall into her mouth. “It tastes like wine,” she says. Several panels later, we see Guy, in the distance, alone in the rain. Then we pan in on his head, and we see the wheels turning in his head, as he tilts his head and opens his mouth to taste the rain.

This graphic novel was marketed to older teens and adults (some reviewers guesstimate the interest level to be grades 10 and up) but I think it will resonate with many younger teens, and even some pre-teens, particularly those who enjoy dystopian science fiction.  People interested in this genre tend to question the status quo, fear the loss of privacy, personal freedom and intellectual freedom. Intellectually curious young teens will devour this amazing graphic novel, but it may take some time for it to start flying off the shelves.  So. . . if a teen walks into the library, loved Hunger Games, Divergent, The Giver—hand them Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation.  Chances are they’ll also want to check out the novel version after they’ve finished the graphic novel!

Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian

Subjects: Book burning, Totalitarianism, Dystopia, Conformity, Intellectual Freedom, Personal Freedom, Knowledge, Books

Reading level/Interest level: Grades 7 & up

Read-alikes:

Collins’ Hunger Games, Catching Fire & Mockingjay

Roth’s Divergent

Lowry’s The Giver

Orwell’s 1984

Huxley’s Brave New World

Divergent: Dauntless, Dystopian and Impossible to Set Down

Divergent by Veronica Roth, 2011. Katherine Tegen books, New York. ISBN: 9780062024022

What's it about?

In future Chicago, society is neatly divided into five factions (Candor, Amnity, Abnegation, the Dauntless and the Erudite) that represent strong character traits. Sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior has to choose the faction where she will spend the rest of her life—will she chose to stay in the faction she was born into, or she will change her life forever by choosing another faction? 

Find out more:  
Divergent is set in a future Chicago, where society is divided into five factions, all based on virtues.  There is the Erudite faction, comprised of those of superior intellect. There is the Dauntless faction, made of those who are courageous. The Amnity faction is made of kind people, and the Candor is made of the honest. The faction sixteen year old Beatrice Prior was born into is Abnegation. These are the selfless, often deprecated by other faction members as “stiffs” because of their drab clothing and quiet demeanor. The Abnegant place others first and set aside their individual needs.  Factions are determined by a test that everyone takes at sixteen. Beatrice’s test results are inconclusive—she is divergent, and must keep this knowledge to herself. When Beatrice (who shortens her name to Tris) chooses the Dauntless faction, her trial has just begun. She must endure a harsh initiation at the hands of a cruel Dauntless leader, Eric, and a mysterious Dauntless instructor who calls himself “Four.” If she fails to rank highly enough, she will end up factionless, doomed to pitiful living conditions. 

Tris slowly sheds her Abnegant identity, and become the Dauntless Tris, unafraid of taking risks. She doesn’t abandon her former faction, though; she remains fiercely loyal to her family. The reader follows her through her grueling transformation, and sees how she shows characteristics of the other factions throughout training. Divergent is a thrilling, thought-provoking book.  The factions are interesting conceptually, although some factions are more richly depicted than others. The most detailed depiction is of the Dauntless faction. That these factions are exaggerations of traits forces the reader to think about ways that they themselves are defined by society, and how this impacts every day choices. This novel is science fiction, but it is more allegorical than hard core science fiction. It should appeal more to girls than boys, and the relationship between Tris and Four, will also satisfy readers seeking romance. 

Genre: Science Fiction; Dystopian  

Reading level: 5^th grade level

Interest level: Middle school and high school students, as well as any adults who read and enjoyed Hunger Games will devour this book and want more. Although this book is aimed at teens, many older tweens (grades 6-9) will love this novel.

Read-alikes:  Divergent has been aptly compared to Hunger Games; both books feature strong female protagonists who fight against a monstrous force—in Hunger Games, it is the Capitol.  In Divergence, it is the Erudite faction.

 The Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men reminds me of Divergent because it is dystopian to an extreme, and in the Chaos Walking books there is the theme of nearly an entire society being duped by an evil person.

Other books fans of Divergent may enjoy, or those with similar themes are The Giver, Brave New World, Farenheit 451, and 1984.

Subjects/themes: Societal roles, mind control, virtual reality, dystopias, character traits, courage, selflessness, abuse of power

Character name/descriptions:

Beatrice Prior (Tris) –The protagonist; Abnegant by birth, Dauntless by choice, but divergent by test

Four –An enigmatic instructor. Beatrice’s romantic interest

Eric—a cruel Dauntless leader 

Series information: Insurgent (Divergent #2) is due out May 2012 (HOORAY!!)