The Giver

 The Giver

Author: Lois Lowry

Title: The Giver

Genre: Science fiction 

Bibliographic Data in MLA format: Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Houghton Mifflin, 2008.

Recommended Grade Level(s): 7-9

Number of Pages: 192

*Brief, concise plot description (no more than one paragraph): This novel tells the story of Jonas, a 12-year-old who grows up in a dystopian society where the government controls everything its citizens do, think, and feel. While his friends are all given typical job assignments, Jonas is selected as the Receiver of Memory, where he is trained by the Giver to hold all the memories of the world. When he is enlightened, he fights back and leaves town. 

Possible Teaching Concerns (may refer back to the text(s) used in class): This novel has very few concerns for teaching, but some people may be uncomfortable with the "stirrings," which are another way of saying sexual desires. Jonas does talk about wanting to see his woman friend naked and discusses this fairly explicitly. Another concern may be the graphic memories that Jonas received of war and death, which may be triggering or frightening for some. 

Personal Reaction to/and/or Evaluation of novel: I absolutely adore this novel. I loved it in 7th grade when I read it for the first time and I love it now after rereading it. I think that the commentary on memory and emotion and how even though there are bad emotions, they are worth it because the good ones are that important is a wonderful reminder that makes me thankful for every spectrum of emotion I feel. I would much rather have both the good and the bad than to just have the neutral. I get to see color. I get to feel love. Reading this book is so interesting to see what life might look like without that, and while sometimes that might seem like a good idea, I ultimately am thankful for what I have and I think this is a good message for young students to hear too. 

Canonical work with which to juxtapose this novel & a brief (one paragraph) description of the rationale to connect the 2 works: I would connect this novel with Farenheight 451 because that is another example of a dystopian society with mass government control. The two novels differ in the protagonist and overall message, but there are a lot of similarities like the censorship of the government. Both of these novels talk about the withholding of books from civilians, so a good thing to talk about in the classroom would be why books are important and what they think the authors are trying to convey by creating a world where books are banned.