The Giver

[LittleXwillow]

This is a good book. And I think this is the first of its series. I don't know how I feel about there being a movie.

[ravenclaw]

I absolutely love The Giver. I watched the movie last Friday and unfortunately it wasn't as great. They made it completely different and ruined a bunch of the action. I will remain loyal to the book, always.

[_BlackRabbit_]

I absolutely love The Giver. I watched the movie last Friday and unfortunately it wasn't as great. They made it completely different and ruined a bunch of the action. I will remain loyal to the book, always.

I couldn't agree with you more. I saw the movie a few weeks ago. The cinematography was amazing but the story was ruined with the stupid and needless changes. What I hated the most about it was the fact that they aged the characters. It ruins the movie. Imaging a twelve year old Jonas go through the changes and tribulations faced in the Giver leaves a bigger impact than seeing a "sixteen" year old Jonas go through some changes, a love interest, and an action chase scene.

[Norma_Rudolph]

There were a lot of changes in the movie, but if you view it as an entirely different media and a new twist on the story, it's a beautiful movie. I like how they handles some things.

[nannyluvscmu]

I didn't really like this book. I guess dystopian literature is not one of my favorites. I liked BRAVE NEW WORLD and I thought 1984 was okay, but even THE HUNGER GAMES wasn't really my cup of tea (especially because of the end). This seemed more like an extended prologue into a journey than an actual adventure, I think. Like if Margaret Atwood had stopped in the middle of THE HANDMAID'S TALE, even though if I remember correctly, I didn't like that book's ending either.

[alexisregister]

The Giver is one of my favorite books, I have read it over 10 times. I can't wait to start reading the other books by Lois in this series
Gathering Blue
Messenger
and Son

all take place in the "giver" world

[AvidUrbanReader]

This book was amazing. I read it a long time ago, and I would not mind reading again.

[klastra88]

I just finished reading The Giver about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I found it an interesting book. Like, most post-apocalyptic/ dystopian books go, the main character (Jonas) starts off as a model citizen however, when he takes on the difficult task of becoming the society’s next “receiver” her starts to learn details about his community and his family that he never realized before.

I did enjoy this book and read it in less than a week because it is a fairly short book however, I was disappointed in the ending. The ending somewhat left you hanging. What happens to Jonas and the baby that he saved? What happened to the rest of the community once their memories and colors start to come back? Will the Giver be able to help them? Will Jonas ever be reunited with his family?

Most people don’t realize that there are actually three more books that conclude this series however, each of the next three books involve different characters and even different cities or towns. I tried to read the second book and couldn’t get into it because of the new characters. Over all The Giver was an OK book, it was well written and it kept me intrigued but, the ending kind of ruined it for me.

P.S. Don’t even bother seeing the movie. It was not very good.

[Courtney Whittamore]

This book has been sitting on my shelf for ages and keeps getting passed over by all the new books that keep coming our with and feel bombarded by. With the release of the movie, I was planning on reading it and then of course, life happened. However it has jumped up a few rungs on the must-read list after reading this post and all of the replies. Thank you all!

[ssued2894]

The first time I read this was in middle school, for school. I absolutely fell in love with it then. I have not reread it since then but I most certainly want to. I also am excited about it being made into a movie, I can't wait for it to come out. I honestly do not remember the book that well but I plan to reread it before I go and see the movie. I am quite surprised that my school chose such a good book to read. Normally the books you are forced to read in school are not very good.

[yogitranscend]

Sounds eerie and interesting, will have to read it! I like some dystopian novels and am trying to increase my exposure to them. I like who they make you think about how lucky we really are. I have read Anthem by Ayn Rand and loved it, of course, as well as 1984 but I am trying to delve into longer dystopian novels so I will check this one out, thanks!

[MoonLily]

I loved the book when I read it in middle school and again when I read it in college. I love the progression from him being a pretty much innocent child to actually learning the truth about the world. While I would never consider myself a conspiracy theorist, this story gives the overwhelming thought of 'what if'. When I had first read the book, I was about the same age as the main character and started to notice things that seemed to be pushing people to conform to one way of thinking. The teacher didn't quite like my difference of opinion on the book from the rest of my classmates and it earned me a short detention after school. It is a decent story and I think everyone should read it at least once.

[LivreAmour217]

The Giver is probably one of the best books that I read during middle school. It has far more than just entertainment value--it tackles some very real ethical dilemmas and inspires deep thought in the reader. I recently learned that some school districts have actually banned the book because of the controversial views held by the Jonas's society, such as the "low" status of birth mothers. I feel that the children who live in these districts are really missing out.

As for the ambiguous ending, I want to believe that the book ended happily and that Jonas and Gabriel are living among people who have retained their humanity. I think that Lois Lowry ended the book the way that she did to add a glimmer of hope to an otherwise dismal setting.

[Briebird]

My blog title is from Lois Lowry's The Giver, so I should probably say something here about why even a short phrase from the book is important to me. Lots of folks (myself included) read it in school at some point, but if you never have or maybe weren't paying attention in 8th grade English, you're sorely missing out.

Go read it. Don't read it because of the recent movie hype (I hear it didn't do that well anyway) or because maybe you've heard it's a classic or even because a book review blog post is telling you to.

Read it because Lowry creates a whitewashed, legal, safe, boring - and therefore insidious and believable - dystopia. Read it because it's a plea for the small but vital freedoms, joys, and even conflicts that we take for granted; because it will make you ache with nostalgia for the present. Because it will wake you up a little to beauty and wonder that have been there all along. Because it will show you color. Just go read it.

That got pretty impassioned pretty fast. If all of that last paragraph was too feel-y for you, well then, go read it because its interesting, well-written and a pretty quick read. Also, everyone else has read it. Don't you want to be like everyone else? Yeah, you do. Which is why you need to read The Giver.

It's part of a series; I don't know anything about the other 3 books. I'll get to them eventually, maybe. But the first one is important, and I highly recommend it to, well, everybody.

[cmp librarian]

Has anyone seen the new movie, The Giver? Without spoilers, which is better movie or the book? I'm assuming the book is better as I read that and thought it was amazing. But I'm curious for other thoughts.