The Giver is a 1993 American children's novel (generally Young Adult or older) by Lois Lowry. It is set in a society which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth and thirteenth years of his life. The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness," a plan that has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of Receiver of Memory, the person who stores all the past memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. Jonas learns the truth about his dystopian society and struggles with its weight. The Community lacks any colour, memory, climate and terrainwhatsoever, all part of Sameness and this emphasizes the dystopian qualities of the Community.
The Giver won the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold more than 10 million copies.[1] In Australia, Canada, and the United States, it is a part of many middle school reading lists, but it is also on many challenged book lists and appeared on the American Library Association's list of most challenged books of the 1990s.
The novel forms a loose quartet with three other books set in the same future era: Gathering Blue (2000), Messenger(2004), and Son (2012).
Full text of the Novel: The Giver, Lois Lowry
