more thoughts on the giver

Thanks to everyone for all your comments to my last post. So glad that my Newbery experiment isn't boring everyone to tears! I really liked hearing everyone's thoughts, so please keep them coming. I'm sure not all books (ahem...The White Stag...yawn!) will generate the same response, but The Giver was definitely a book that evokes a strong response from everyone who reads it.

So after I posted last, I immediately went to amazon to check out some of the reader reviews. The Giver has a staggering 3200 reviews! That's a lot. I read through many of them and was relieved to see that my response of horror and tears was really common (I was kind of worrying I was losing my grip there!) But for a lot of readers, that is where it stopped and they gave the book one or two stars.

But I think I've decided I really like it. I really like the ambiguous ending. I can imagine a young reader, used to an ending that wraps everything up in a neat little package, finding this ending challenging, something that really makes them think. That's a valuable asset in a book for young readers. The author, Lois Lowry, even talked about this in her Newbery acceptance speech in 1994:

Those of you who hoped that I would stand here tonight and reveal the “true” ending, the “right” interpretation of the ending, will be disappointed. There isn’t one. There’s a right one for each of us, and it depends on our own beliefs, our own hopes.

Let me tell you a few endings which are the “right” endings for a few children out of the many who have written to me.

From a sixth grader: “I think that when they were traveling they were traveling in a circle. When they came to “Elsewhere” it was their old
community, but they had accepted the memories and all the feelings that go
along with it…”

From another: “…Jonas was kind of like Jesus because he took the pain for everyone else in the community so they wouldn’t have to suffer. And, at the very end of the book, when Jonas and Gabe reached the place that they knew as Elsewhere, you described Elsewhere as if it were heaven.”

And one more: “A lot of people I know would hate that ending, but not me. I loved it. Mainly because I got to make the book happy. I decided they made it. They made it to the past. I decided the past was our world, and the future was their world. It was parallel worlds.”

Finally, from one seventh grade boy: “I was really surprised that they just died at the end. That was a bummer. You could of made them stay alive, I thought.”

Those are some great thoughts. And I love that they came from her child readers. Please note, though, they are all 6th or 7th graders. I would not unleash this book on a much younger reader, definitely not without reading it first. And not just because of its heavy duty content. I just think it would be a wasted opportunity because so much of it would be over their heads. This is what Lowry had to say concerning the age appropriateness of The Giver when asked if it was suitable for a 5th grade class:

Based on what I've heard from hundreds of teachers over the years since The Giver's publication, it is most effectively used with kids 12-15 years old. With that age group it seems to provoke vigorous discussion, debate, and a good deal of thought about the issues raised in the book. 10-year-olds can certainly follow the plot, and read it for the "story" but they are for the most part too young to fully appreciate the underlying concepts. Some readers that young will read the book and love it; I know because I often hear from them! But as a class read, I think 10 is a little too young.

So, in summary, I really liked it. One of the best I've read so far, after Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

Now I think I'm done talking about The Giver. Um... the end.

In case you think I'm a nerd who reads Newberys all day long, not so! I can be shallow, too! My whole day has been bathed in a rosy glow because I bought two new dresses at Target for a total of $20. Bliss! Here's one:

I can't find the other, but it makes me feel like I should be working in the secretary pool at Sterling Cooper. Happy day! Pretty dresses!