The Giver

Background:
The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth year of his life. Jonas' society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness", a plan which has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of "Receiver of Memory," the person who stores all the memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. As Jonas receives the memories from his predecessor—the "Giver"—he discovers how shallow his community's life has become.

Review:
I love this book. I have read this book at least four times in my short life and every time I read it, it becomes an entirely different book, with different meanings and emotions, to me. The most recent time I read it I still loved it, but I kept feeling so much anger inside toward this society. It's amazing how much people complain about the problems in our country, around the world and just about life in general. Sadly, most don't do anything to change things. So things perpetuate and continue to be bad and to get worse. But even if we were to have a "perfect society," I think the cost of losing our choice and such just wouldn't be worth it to me. This society is what I envision Satan's plan to look like. It is a real eye opener. When we compare it to the many things we are blessed with we realize we have so many choices in this great nation that we sometimes take for granted. I guess it just takes an infuriating, but great, book to humble us. I love all the symbolism and thought put into the society and writing within this book. Lois Lawry has truly created a thinking book. It could become a great conversation piece to use with children to discuss some of life's tough issues.