The Giver

I had recently finished The Giver by Lois Lowry.  It is science fiction and a Newbery Award winner.  The Giver is about a boy, named Jonas, who has been volunteering throughout his years as he is supposed to do.  Every December there is a ceremony in which the children of the community go into the next group of age.  Sometimes, something will happen when they go into the next group; otherwise, they will just be more mature.  When an age group is eleven and will become twelve, there will be a Ceremony of Twelve.  During the Ceremony of Twelve all of the children becoming a Twelve will get their lifetime job in the community.    When the Chief Elder is giving out the job assignments, she goes in alphabetical order.  Jonas knows that his name is next, but then the Chief Elder skips it.  All Jonas can do is wonder why.  When the Chief Elder finally calls his name, last, he walks up onto the stage.  The Chief Elder says, "Jonas has not been assigned; Jonas has been selected."  He became the Receiver of Memory, an extremely rare job.  The Chief Elder notes that their community only has one Receiver who will now train Jonas to take his place.  Jonas gets his instructions for Receiver of Memory and the next day he is off to training. 

On Jonas' first day of training, he meets the Receiver that will train him. That Receiver is named The Giver.  Jonas goes into the room that he is to meet in.  There, The Giver, will pass on the memories that he has, onto Jonas so that Jonas will be the only one with the memory.  Everyday after school they do the same process, passing the memories until Jonas has them.  Some of the memories are happy and joyful, while others are scary and brutal. 

When Jonas is in his dwelling his father brings home a newborn since his father's job is a nurturer.  The newborn is named Gabe.  His father takes care of Gabe at their dwelling during the nights.  But when Jonas finds out that something bad is going to happen to Gabe, he makes a plan to run away with Gabe.  Jonas goes on a long, tiring, life threatening trip by bicycle just to save Gabe.  To protect them both Jonas will use some of the memories that he got to transfer to Gabe.  When the journey comes to an end, technically they are still in the middle of nowhere, but Jonas knows they're almost there.

The Giver is a very well-written book with fantastic vocabulary, story line, and more.  I recommend for anyone to read it.  There also sequels to The Giver and I plan on reading those too.  This is also the first book that our book club will be reading.  I hope that they like it as much as I did.