Module 4:
The Giver
Summary:
This story is about a young boy named Jonas who appears to live in a perfect world. He lives in a controlled community where there seems to be no negative aspects of life. Everything changes when he is named the next Receiver and given the memories and past history of life. Jonas finds out a truth too shocking to ignore despite the dangerous choices he must make.
Citations:
Lowry, L. (1993). The giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Impressions:
Reviews:
loved this book. I had been meaning to read this book ever since I was in elementary but I never got around to it. Many of the elementary schools assign this book for class assignments. I thought it was an excellent dystopia. I am a big fan of dystopia and I thought this was a unique version of humanity.
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Gr 6-9-- In a complete departure from her other novels, Lowry has written an intriguing story set in a society that is uniformly run by a Committee of Elders. Twelve-year-old Jonas's confidence in his comfortable ``normal'' existence as a member of this well-ordered community is shaken when he is assigned his life's work as the Receiver. The Giver, who passes on to Jonas the burden of being the holder for the community of all memory ``back and back and back,'' teaches him the cost of living in an environment that is ``without color, pain, or past.'' The tension leading up to the Ceremony, in which children are promoted not to another grade but to another stage in their life, and the drama and responsibility of the sessions with The Giver are gripping. The final flight for survival is as riveting as it is inevitable. The author makes real abstract concepts, such as the meaning of a life in which there are virtually no choices to be made and no experiences with deep feelings. This tightly plotted story and its believable characters will stay with readers for a long time. --Amy Kellman, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 1993 (Retrieved from http://catalog.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/PresentTitles?databaseID=965&index=n&terms=lowry%2C+lois&count=10&mapid=-1&refid=-1&tagid=-1&aid=-1&tagNum=-1&page=6&initialbrowse=null)
Suggestions:
This is one of my favorite books and I just recently discovered that is the first in a trilogy. I think this would be a great series to use in the class in order to compare different theories on the future and how it differs from the present or the past.
Jellicoe Road
Summary:
This young adult book is about a teenage girl named Taylor who was abandoned by her mother at a gas station when she was eleven years old. She now attends a boarding school and is the leader of the boarding schools six different houses. After her friend and closest thing she has to a mother disappears she discovers a book manuscript and begins to try to piece together the puzzle of her life and figure out why all of the people around her seem to be connected.
Citations:
Marchetta, M. (2008). Jellicoe road. New York: HarperTeen.
Impressions:
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a little confusing at times as I tried to follow the two different stories going on in this book and trying to capture every clue.
Reviews:
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When she was 11, Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother at a convenience store. At 17, she resides in a boarding school on Jellicoe Road. The closest person to her is Hannah, a nearby resident and would-be foster mom to the school's misfits. Now Hannah has disappeared when Taylor needs her most. She has been chosen to lead the school in its war with the local "Townies" and visiting "Cadets"-the cadets being led by a smoldering Jonah Briggs, with whom Taylor has a past. Looking for a clue to Hannah's whereabouts, Taylor reads a manuscript she left that tells the story of five friends united by a fatal accident on Jellicoe Road 22 years earlier. Why It is a Best: Set in rural Australia, the story of Taylor and of the five friends is permeated by a sense of place and time. Readers will smell the trees and taste the dust. Why It Is for Us: This is rich and layered domestic fiction that requires patience and careful attention as it spins a story of parents, children, and the legacy of tragedy. Readers of Anita Shreve and Wally Lamb will find much to enjoy here.-Angelina Benedetti, King Cty. Lib. Syst., WA. 2008. (Retrieved from http://catalog.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/DoSearch?databaseID=965&initialsearch=true&count=10&finish=search_page.jsp&mode=manual&terms=jellicoe+road&index=w)
Suggestions:
This novel is very complicated at times but I think readers will be satisfied in the end. The entire novel takes place in Australia and it isn’t often that many youth fiction books take place in foreign countries. The language is different which could be an interesting method of introducing a foreign country that many teens don’t really think about very often.
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