The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver is written from the perspective of a little boy named Jonas. Jonas lives in a world where everything is predictable and safe and everyones lives are planned out for them. There are no luxuries and no one decides anything without the help of the community. Even children are decided upon and a married couple chosen by the community are allowed one female and one male child. With Jonas's upcoming Ceremony of Twelve coming up he will now be a new adult member of the community. At such a young age Jonas will be trained and given the memories that he must keep, which cause inflicting situations. Having never read the book before and I enjoyed it. The way The Giver ends can leave some hanging without knowing what just happened, but can create a lot of great discussions. One thing i really liked from the beginning of the story was when the family went around the table and told an emotion that they had experienced from the day. I think it would be a great activity in the classroom to get kids talking.