Comments on: Review: The Giver, by Lois Lowry (mother and son joint review)

By: Bid and Win the first in the series: The Giver by Lois Lowry on Freado | Freado Blog

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:54:42 +0000

[...] Read React review [...]

By: Carolyn Crane

Carolyn Crane — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:57:27 +0000

How did I miss this? Wow, this is an excellent review, you two. David, I really like your take-away theme of choice (even for Geo Bush! even though I used to wish I could be the boss of him, I feel you are right about that.) Also, Jessica, the point about the alternatives being attractive in a dystopian, right. I always enjoy that more.

This was an interesting and helpful review. Hmm! Maybe this is a book I’ll recommend to my niece.

By: Sherry Thomas

Sherry Thomas — Sun, 16 May 2010 15:42:22 +0000

Well done, David.

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:57:59 +0000

What a great, thoughtful (and funny) review. I haven’t read this either, but what you both say fits with what I’ve heard from children’s lit people (a lot of people felt betrayed by sequels that foreclosed ambiguity and negated their reading of The Giver’s ending).

I’m not surprised it’s taught a lot. This is how I feel about Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale, which I find not very satisfying as a novel because it’s too “obvious,” but which is very “teachable” for the same reason.

Have you read/taught Ursula LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”? It sounds like this books explores some of the same issues (but LeGuin has sex and music and all that good stuff in her u/dystopia).

By: janicu

janicu — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:54:33 +0000

I liked this review a lot! I haven’t read THE GIVER either, but it *does* look like a short book so I can see it being too short. Didn’t know this was the start of a trilogy.

By: Victoria Janssen

Victoria Janssen — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:04:08 +0000

I’ve never read this, either. It sounds like I ought to, just to see how it fits into utopian/dystopian literature as a whole.