The Giver

Title: The Giver
ISBN: 9780395645666
Author: Lois Lowry
Award Won: Newbery Medal
Age recommendation: Ages 9-12
Group represented: a group of citizens living in a society set in the future. About a 12 year old boy and his family unit



Summary:

This book is about a society that is set in the future. The people of the society have been made all the same and they do not get to make any choices for themselves. Their clothing, family unit, and food is all decided for them. Everything is decided for them by the elders and committee members. All the citizens have set things that happen to them depending on how old they are in a given year. The main character is Johnas and he is turning 12, which is the year that your adult job in the community is given to you. He receives the assignment of receiver of memory and does a years worth of training with the giver of memory. He takes lots of memories in, some painful and some that make him very happy. He learns of colors and that people once had choices and everyone was not the same. He learns of families and love and is determined to change things and make the citizens aware of what they are missing out on. He devises a plan with the Giver that he will leave the city and travel far beyond to "Elsewhere". An unknown place that he is sure exists beyond the communities. When he leaves the citizens will have to endure the memories that he once held and will know of color and emotion. He takes with him some food and baby Gabriel. Gabriel is a baby that was born a year ago, but is behind on his development in the community, and is scheduled to be put to death or "released" from the community the following day. Johnas can't bear the thought of Gabriel being "released". Johnas and Gabriel set off on their journey hiding from search crews and almost starving to death until they reach the bottom of a hill. At the bottom their is a house full of family and friends to greet them and take them into a place where they can have feelings and see color. This is just one interpretation of the ending. The author makes it unclear as to what really happens when they reach the bottom of the hill on their sled but hints at them finding a new family.



This would be an interesting book to use in a social studies lesson about how communities function, how the governments of communities work to serve the citizens, and how citizens interact with each other and help the city run. The students could develop their own communities with their own set of rules and write a report about all the daily happenings and assignements that would be needed to make the city function.

The students could also write their own ending to the book because the ending is vague.