Saturday, June 2, 2012

Book Review ~ The Giver by Lois Lowry

So this strange book was of course a Newberry Medal winner and it was of course… STRANGE! I didn’t understand the point of the book until chapter 10. But chapter 10 was a major turning point. Before this chapter I was reading because I was supposed to read this Newberry winner. After chapter 10, I was reading because I wanted to see the character develop. The Giver does an outstanding job of teaching the basic gospel principle of agency. The main character has the opportunity to contemplate this principle and is able to act upon it and use it for good. With all that said, I would not say that I liked the book. I think it had a horrible ending! Most reviews I read LOVED the book and LOVED the ending. There was only one review (out of the 50 or so that I read) that gave me a glimpse of hope for our society. Only one, in my opinion, was able to actually make connections in the book and was therefore able to understand the ending. Most reviews said the ending was ambiguous and was so on purpose for the reader’s sake. Shallow responses! Only one person was able to connect the ending with the book. So, thank you to that person. You make me like the book a bit more. There are 2 more books written after The Giver. The second book is completely separate from book one. Book three ties the characters from book one to the characters from book two. I am tempted to read the next two simply because they are an extremely easy read and I would like some closure.

No comments:

Post a Comment