Ok, so this is my favorite dystopian book ever! I think I compare all other dystopian books to this one. I'll give you three clues before the big reveal...
Clue 1) This book is FINALLY being made into a movie! Yay! It comes out in 2011.
Clue 2) It won a Newbery award.
Clue 3) This book has been banned and challenge by many schools and yet is in the curriculum of several others.
Didja figure out what book it is?
My favorite dystopianYA novel is...
Drum roll please...
The Giver
By Lois Lowry
Genre: Science fiction
My Rating: 5 stars!
Summary: "In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of Brave New World in this 1994 Newbery Medal winner, Lowry examines the idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to create a more stable society. Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the price."
Taken from the back of the book.
Oh. My. Goodness. I love this book! (Can you tell?) I also taught this book to 8th graders and they love it too. A lot of them read ahead and couldn't keep the secrets and ending to themselves. And so many discussions come out of this book!
It's wonderful and thought-provoking. It's one of those books where you wanna just keep reading and reading to see what's gonna happen next. I mean, jeez louise the community sure controls everything (what job you'll be assigned at the age of 12, who you'll marry, and then you are given your children, where you're given one boy and one girl.) The members of this community are raised believing everything is absolutely perfect.
Amazingly good quotes in this book from a very wise teacher and a very bewildered Jonas. I've read this book at least 4 times and I notice new things and find new favorite quotes every time I read it.
I don't want to give anything away (because there are some awesome twists and secrets revealed as the story unfolds), but the reasons that this book is challenged/banned make me believe that the people who challenge it haven't read it. Because the book clearly speaks AGAINST the reasons people want the book banned.
Uh, everybody needs to read the book!
And if you have read it, reread it. It's awesome!
Are you excited this book is FINALLY being made into a movie?!?
I remember reading about this book on Mundie Mums during banned book week. The person who wrote the post referred to it as something like "that defining book from your youth"... And I had never heard of it! (It's obviously not in the syllabus in SA!) And after this review I want to read it even more!
ReplyDeleteAstounding that I have never read this. Now I must. I MUST! Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteYay! Giver recruits! Let me know what you think when you read it. :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this book.
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