Book {The Giver}

This is also May {reading}.

It seems like I've been hearing about The Giver by Lois Lowry for the longest time.  I'd see it on the bookstore shelf, I'd hear about people reading it, especially since The Hunger Games took over the world.  I swore back in Jr. High or High School, it was one of the books I had actually read, but I didn't remember anything about it and the story line did not ring a single bell.  And then I realized that I had read something by Lois Lowry but it was not The Giver.  It was Number the Stars.  (Which I will have to go back and read now.)

Anyway, that is neither nor there.  The point is, I finally got around to reading a book I thought I had already read.

I really enjoyed this book.  It's a youth fiction and reads really quickly.  I really enjoyed Lowry's prose, it was simple and clear but powerful.  She writes about a community that has adopted a philosophy and lifestyle called the Sameness.  Everything is controlled by the Elders from when kids receive their bikes to which occupations people will have to who will be part of their family unit.  Everyone is content with the life they have, mostly because they know no different and the Elders study each person carefully in order make the decisions that will keep each person content.

Each December, the children go through a ceremony that "advances" them to the next age and they receive new instructions or new items that will help them.  Jonas will become a Twelve at the beginning of the book.  Twelves receive their occupation assignment and begin their training for the occupation they've been given.  Jonas receives the honor of being the Receiver.  This is a rare calling and there is only one Receiver in the community.

The Receiver holds all of the memories of past generations, of what the world and people were like before Sameness was adopted.  The people in the community have no recollection of these memories.  The Receiver, begins to give the memories to Jonas and through these memories his eyes are opened and he understands things differently.  He begins to think differently.

It seems like a simple, straightforward story, but I imagine there is much more to it.  Perhaps a few more readings of it are needed.  I recommend this book to all.  There are three more books in the series and I plan on picking them up.

Also, Lois Lowry took the photograph used on the cover.  Makes me like her even more.