20 Best Books For Students (2023 Update)

Jonas lives in a community that appears, on first acquaintance, to be perfect. It's a world without crime, and with no unemployment—and therefore no poverty—nobody has to suffer hunger pangs, never mind the torment of starvation and homelessness. All members of a family unit share the experiences and “feelings” of their day each evening and nobody lies. Or so Jonas believes. Only when he learns that his lifetime job is to be the Receiver (taking on all the memories of both pain and joy that have been banished from his society, and being given permission to lie) does he realise the community's creators have banished even more good than evil from his society. Jonas and his tutor, the previous Receiver, to whom he gives the title the Giver, decide that the cost of their stable society is too high … Jonas's community clearly doesn't cover the whole world in which it is set, and one doesn't even have to travel over water to reach “Elsewhere”, of which there are hints relatively early in the book. Most members of the community clearly believe that this is where people who are “released” go. Young readers possibly might not guess the truth here but I'm sure adult readers will. For a book with such a complex set-up The Giver is amazingly short at fewer than 200 pages. If it had been a novel for adults I think it would have contained a lot more detail on how this utopian society was set up, because it does leave you asking questions about it. Lowry does, however, give enough detail for the purpose of her story and she handles it deftly, never getting in the way of the forward motion of the plot and therefore taking the risk of boring young readers. I was amazed to hear that The Giver was on the list of "most challenged" books for 2000, on the grounds of "being sexually explicit, having occult themes, violence". I didn't see anything in it that was inappropriate for its audience of young adults and anything of a sexual nature was hinted at rather than "explicit". The Giver is a thoroughly gripping read and beautifully written.

This is an incredible book and I loved every minute of it. The story line is intriguing from the beginning – set in the future it tells the story of a 'perfect' society that exists where everyone home is uniform. Pain and sadness are unknown in this seemingly perfect world. In the community exists a 'giver' who has been given memories from the past. The book tells the story of Jonas, a 12 year old boy, who has been chosen to receive memories of pain and sadness. He goes on a journey of discovery to see the real meaning behind what is happening in his community. Lois Lowry has done an amazing job writing this book. It toys with the idea of taking away choice from people's lives and creating a world where everyone and everything are very uniform. Her interpretation of that kind of world is simply intriguing. A great read and I would recommend it to anyone.