Book Review: The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry
Winner of the Newbery Medal, 1994

"Do you love me?" 

There was an awkward silence for a moment. Then Father gave a little chuckle. "Jonas. You, of all people. Precision of language, please!" 

"What do you mean?" Jonas asked. Amusement was not at all what he had anticipated. 

"Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it's become almost obsolete," his mother explained carefully. 

Jonas stared at them. Meaningless? He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory 

"And of course our community can't function smoothly if people don't use precise language. You could ask, 'Do you enjoy me?' The answer is 'Yes,'" his mother said. 

"Or," his father suggested, "'Do you take pride in my accomplishments?; And the answer is wholeheartedly 'Yes.'" 

"Do you understand why it's inappropriate to use a word like 'love?'" Mother asked. 

Jonas nodded. "Yes, I think I do," he replied slowly. 

It was his first lie to his parents.

This book sits on the boundary of children's literature and YA literature, and is considered a classic. For good reason.  This is a favorite book of many teachers, including some who who read it aloud every year.

The story takes place in a community that values order and sameness. Citizens are assigned everything: their spouse, their children, their adult jobs, their medications, their food and clothes, etc. Jonas is about to turn 12, the age when he will learn his assignment. Jonas is not assigned, but selected, to become the community's new Receiver, the person who can offer guidance to the community based on the memories and feelings that have been transmitted to him from the old Receiver, a man who opens Jonas's eyes to what the world was like before sameness and choice.

I read this book in one sitting.