'The Giver' by Lois Lowry

The Giver, Lois Lowry (4.0)

I have to say I’m amazed with the number of good young adult dystopian novels I’ve read in the last few years. Of course ‘The Hunger Games’ tops the list and I think it opened the doorway for me to gain access to other young adult novels.  ‘The Giver’ was published in 1993 and won the Newbery Medal, a literary award for children’s books.  It is a thought provoking story that reminded me of ‘1984’ and ‘The Lottery’. The future community described has controlled many aspects of its inhabitant’s lives, so that dramatic bad things don’t happen.  Of course the high end of the sine wave also won’t happen (i.e. dramatic happiness).  The underlying question is: is it worth it?  There are some really unique and almost poetic concepts and I found the storytelling to be very thoughtful.  I recommend this to both young and older readers. There are some simplistic, obvious lessons, but I think it is worth the read.