The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt-1993)

By: Lois Lowry

Grade: 6-8

*Newbery Medal 1994*

The Giver is about a young boy names Jonas. His world is essentially perfect. Everything in his world is controlled. There are no choices. When an individual turns twelve, they are assigned a role in society (their job). When Jonas turns twelve, he is assigned to receive training from The Giver. The Giver is the only one who holds the memories of true pain and true pleasure. Once he begins training, he will receive all of this information, along with a lot of truth that he didn't know existed and that he must never talk about. What will Jonas do with the new information? I love this book! I have read it in middle school and high school for different classes. The Gossamer is also a great book written by Lois Lowry. I recommend both books for middle school students. They will be able to relate and there is a lot of information that will promote discussion and debate.

Theme/Skills Taught: Utopia Society, rules & values, family/

About the Author: Lois was born the middle child. She was very solitary and lived in the world of books and her imagination. She lived all over the world because her father was a career military officer. She was born in Hawaii, moved to New York, then Carlisle Pennsylvania, to Tokyo, back to New York for high school and to college at Brown University in Rhode Island while her family was living in Washington, D.C. She married at 19 to a Naval officer which continued her travels.  Her five children grew up in Maine where she returned to college (University of Southern Maine), got her degree and went to grad school and began writing professionally. Her books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections.Lois Lowry's Bio

Pre-Reading Activities: Make a survey/list of ideas or activities. Have students agree/disagree whether they would make a perfect society. Have them add 5 of their own. For example "no murder". Most students would agree that having no murder in a society would make it closer to perfect. Music, for example, may present more differences amongst students. Make sure you include ideas and themes from the story.

Post Reading Activities: Each chapter presents new information for class activities and discussions.

-There is a lot of new vocabulary (and they refer to things differently than we do). Have students use context clues in the first four chapters to define the following: Nurturer, Nurturing Center, Naming, Elder, Receiver, Assignment, Comfort Object, Newchild, Bike Port, Speaker, Rehabilitation Center, House of the Old, Volunteer Hours, Birthmother, and Celebration of Release.

-Create a perfect society. Describe: Your system of laws, rules, and punishments; Your system of how people are educated; Your system for finding and choosing leaders, and how the government runs;Your social system & how people raise families, and find enjoyment. Feel free to add any other plans you can think of.

-In The Giver, they have a specific life schedule (each individual does the same thing at the same age). For example, children get their assignments when they turn twelve. Have students brainstorm and write down what happens at ages 1-12 and what happens after they receive their assignments.