The Giver

[OfficialKatK]

My friend is the one who recommended this book to me. I was so sad because I just could not get into it. It took me like 2 months to finish it. I think maybe it was because I don't really like reading about dystopias or in the future kind of books.

[Trueread]

This book is very well-known by readers. I read The Giver awhile ago and I don't see why everyone is so fascinated by the material in this book. Let me be clear I'm not saying it was a bad book, I'm stating that I was expecting more and I was slightly dissapionted when I read it. It was simply a little boring.

[Wonderland__]

It's not one of my favorites books, i like the movie more. I first watched the movie and then read the book. The characters in the book are different than the ones in the movie somehow. Maybe because in the book the characters are younger. I don't like The Giver or Jonas in the book, they are a little annoying sometimes.

[ReadingIsAGift]

The Giver is an awesome book!

My sister received it as an assignment in high school when i was really young.

Although I was too young then to really understand it , I became a bit obsessed with it.

As I grew my understanding of it grew as I watched the world around me.
It showed a few sides to certain situations, so I believe it helped me remain more moral then I would have been without it.

No, i am not saying this book is a rule book of morals, but you can use parts of it as parables.

This book does have a lot of depth to it, especially if your looking for it.

A Must to read!!!

[QyeenMontana]

I love post-apocalyptic reads and this is my favourite one. There is so much passion and love in it omg.

[falloutlunartic]

I loved this book and have read it more than once. The series leaves you to think for yourself about the comparison between the book and today's society in A good way. I have seen reviews on this book that say it was terrible and propaganda, but I think it helps readers to think for themselves.

[doyle5]

post-apocolyptic/dystopian is my favorite young adult sub genre.

[steampunk_girl]

The Giver seemed like a different kind of book then the ones I usually read but a few of my friends had recommended it to me and there was a movie coming out so why the hell not? The story started somewhat slow and at places I would be beggining to fall out of the rythme of the book but the concept appealed to me having recently read the Matched series another futuristic society book. The concept where us as people had lost all sense of feelings due to the medication connects the theory that feelings are colours. When they stopped feeling things everything became black and white because in a colourless world where everybody sees black and white you can't admire the beauty of things, your personality would slowly not become what it would be and colours just light up our world. I'm just saying that this book has many, many meanings but one I picked up that maybe you didn't, was that colours and feelings do connect and if you take one away the other can easily be snatched away.

I would rate this story 4 out of 4 because of well everything about it appealed to me and I think if you like dystopian or sci Fi or even the Matched series this book would be for you.

[ginalyn]

This was one of the books that got me into reading. It was a requirement in my middle school and I had never really read a dystopian book before. I loved it and my brother (who is not a reader) finished the book, which only happened two other times through out his school years! We saw the movie and it was good there was one major problem we had with it but all together it was good. I don't think the movie is as good as the book or conveys just how intense and amazing this book is. I recommend this to absolutely anyone, even if you don't read much!

[kderse]

I loved this book. here is my review:

The Giver by Lois Lowery a 1994 Newberry Medal Winner. This book is about Jonas who lives in a colorless world of conformity and contentment. When he receives his life assignment as the receiver of memory he begins to see him community in a different light. A darker one that is full of complex secrets.

I recommend this book to teenagers and adults.

This book reminded me a mix of The Hunger Games and 1989 but more of an innocent or childlike edition. I recently watched the movie and thought they did a good job. I enjoyed it.

This story is haunting and powerful. All of us say we want world peace. This book shows what sacrifices would have to be made to truly have that peaceful world. One choice would have to be taken away from us.I am not sure the quote is in the book but in the movie she says ” Choice. When a person chooses. They choose wrong.” We all know someone like that it doesn’t matter how hard they choose to do the right thing. They always choose wrong. Eve chose wrong many years ago when sin entered the world.

This is not a happy feel good book. It leaves you thinking about many things in our world.

Here are my favorite quotes:

“For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps, it was only an echo.”

“I liked the feeling of love,’ [Jonas] confessed. He glanced nervously at the speaker on the wall, reassuring himself that no one was listening. ‘I wish we still had that,’ he whispered.”

“…now he saw the familiar wide river beside the path differently. He saw all of the light and color and history it contained and carried in its slow – moving water; and he knew that there was an Elsewhere from which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was going”

“Things could change, Gabe,” Jonas went on. “Things could be different. I don’t know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. There could be colors. And grandparents,” he added, staring through the dimness toward the ceiling of his sleepingroom. “And everybody would have the memories.”

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”

I rate this book a 4 out of 4 stars.

[ashleyink1809]

A disturbingly fantastic rendering of a passionless society in which children are forced to conform to survive. The consequences and triumphs faced by those who refuse are thought provoking, with the allegories used throughout perfectly fitting each scenario. I can't help but wonder if this was written in response to the standardized testing movement and the eventual cost of denying a child the potential to reveal and remain true to their innermost selves.

[madiann65]

I have read the whole quartet and loved them all. Growing up I knew about the Giver, but never knew there were 3 more books in the series. It was a great weekend that I spent reading them all!

[aparsons]

I agree with so many of you, The Giver is the first dystopian I ever read, I read it when I was young and it really changed the books I read and how I thought about the world. I never realized there was a quartet, and I would love a chance to read all of them, if they are as good as the first. I think this book intrigued me because of the concept of everything being in black and white and grayscaled, that was interesting to visualize.

After the Giver I moved to Ayn Rand's Anthem. It remains one of my favorite books, and I just wish it was longer.

[Anjareis]

I read The Giver along with my son when he was in fifth grade. He thoroughly enjoyed it. I, on the other hand, met with apprehension at almost every turn in the story line once I picked up on the nature of Jonas' community, the concept of "being released," and the inevitable decisions with which Jonas would be faced, i.e., whether to stay or go and whether to take Gabriel or leave him behind. Lowry's written illustrations and examples of the absence of color, feeling, and other hallmarks of the human experience are brilliant. The book is nothing short of thought-provoking and draws its readers in. The ending was unexpected, frustrating, and disappointing. It felt like no ending at all...and yet, I cannot help but think that I am better off not knowing Jonas' and Gabriel's fates. I am glad to have had the reading experience. I do not want to read it again.

[Emma Woods]

I read this is college and got into an argument with my professor because we had to write our ending since Lowery left it open ended. She told me my ending was "too dark" for children's book. (I said they didn't make it.)

As an adult, I've read the whole series and The Giver is my favorite book of the series. But I hated the movie.