The Giver Movie Tie-in Edition: A Newbery Award Winner

By Lois Lowry

In Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal–winning classic, twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind his fragile community.

This movie tie-in edition features cover art from the movie and an exclusive Q&A with cast members, including Taylor Swift, Brenton Thwaites, and Cameron Monaghan.

Life in the community where Jonas lives is idyllic. Designated birthmothers produce newchildren, who are assigned to appropriate family units. Citizens are assigned their partners and their jobs. No one thinks to ask questions. Everyone obeys. Everyone is the same. Except Jonas.

Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. Gradually Jonas learns that power lies in feelings. But when his own power is put to the test—when he must try to save someone he loves—he may not be ready. Is it too soon? Or too late?

The Giver has become one of the most influential novels of our time. Don't miss the powerful companion novels in Lois Lowry's Giver Quartet: Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780544458444

Lois Lowry

LOIS LOWRY, author of over thirty novels and twice winner of the Newbery Medal for The Giver and Number the Stars,was born on the 20th of March 1937 in Hawaii. Her father was an Army dentist and the family lived all over the world. She went to Brown University, but left to get married and a raise a family of four children. She settled in Maine, and returned to college receiving a degree from the University of Southern Maine. She fulfilled a childhood dream when she started writing in the 1970s.

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Text copyright © 1993 by Lois Lowry

Educator resources additional content © HarperCollins Publishers LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

The Giver / by Lois Lowry

p. cm.

Summary: Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

[1. Science fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.L9673Gi 1993 92-15034

[Fic]—dc20 CIP

AC

ISBN: 978-0-544-43078-5 hardcover

ISBN: 978-0-544-34068-8 paperback

eISBN 978-0-544-45844-4

v10.1121

For all the children

To whom we entrust the future

Introduction: The Giver

Twenty years? No kidding: twenty years? It’s hard to believe.

Twenty years ago, I was—well, I was much younger. My parents were still alive. Two of my grandchildren had not yet been born, and another one, now in college, was an infant.

Twenty years ago I didn’t own a cell phone. I didn’t know what quinoa was and I doubt if I had ever tasted kale.

There had recently been a war. Now we refer to that one as the First Gulf War, but back then, mercifully, we didn’t know there would be another.

Maybe a lot of us weren’t even thinking about the future then. But I was. And I’m a writer.

I wrote The Giver on a big machine that had recently taken the place of my much-loved typewriter, and after I printed the pages, very noisily, I had to tear them apart, one by one, at the perforated edges. (When I referred to it as my computer, someone more knowledgeable pointed out that my machine was not a computer. It was a dedicated word processor. Oh, okay then, I said, as if I understood the difference.)

As I carefully separated those two hundred or so pages, I glanced again at the words on them. I could see that I had written a complete book. It had all the elements of the seventeen or so books I had written before, the same things students of writing list on school quizzes: characters, plot, setting, tension, climax. (Though I didn’t reply as he had hoped to a student who emailed me some years later with the request "Please list all the similes and metaphors in The Giver," I’m sure it contained those as well.) I had typed THE END after the intentionally ambiguous final paragraphs.

But I was aware that this book was different from the many I had already written.

My editor, when I gave him the manuscript, realized the same thing. If I had drawn a cartoon of him reading those pages, it would have had a text balloon over his head. The text would have said, simply: Gulp.

But that was twenty years ago. If I had written The Giver this year, there would have been no gulp. Maybe a yawn, at most. Ho-hum. In so many recent dystopian novels (and there are exactly that: so many), societies battle and characters die hideously and whole civilizations crumble. None of that in The Giver. It was introspective. Quiet. Short on action.

Introspective, quiet, and short on action translates to tough to film. Katniss Everdeen gets to kill off countless adolescent competitors in various ways during The Hunger Games; that’s exciting movie fare. It sells popcorn. Jonas, riding a bike and musing about his future? Not so much. Although the film rights to The Giver were snapped up early on, it moved forward in spurts and stops for years, as screenplay after screenplay—none of them by me—was commissioned, written, and discarded.

In the meantime, though, readers’ enthusiasm never waned. I had always received lots of letters from kids, frequently writing for a class assignment (one began, This is a Friendly Letter). Over the years, of course, they have more often become emails. But that didn’t compare to the mail about The Giver: first of all, for the volume—the sheer number of them—(even now, twenty years later, they still come, sometimes fifty to sixty in a day). But now the letter writers were different. Sure, many of them were still kids. But a startling number were much older. And the content was no longer the school assignment letter, the obligatory I thought this was a pretty good book. Instead the letters were passionate (This book has changed my life), occasionally angry (Jesus would be ashamed of you, one woman wrote), and sometimes startlingly personal.

One couple wrote to me about their autistic, selectively mute teenager, who had recently spoken to them for the first time—about The Giver, urging them to read it. A teacher from South Carolina wrote that the most disruptive, difficult student in her eighth grade class had called her at home on a no-school day and begged her to read him the next chapter over the phone. A night watchman in an oil refinery wrote that he had happened on the book—it was lying on someone’s desk—while making his rounds (I’m not a reader, he wrote me, but man, I’m glad I came to work tonight). A Trappist monk wrote to me and said he considered the book a sacred text. A man who had, as an adult, fled the cult in which he had been raised told me that his psychiatrist had recommended The Giver to him. Countless new parents have written to explain why their babies have been named Gabriel. A teacher in rural China sent me a photograph of beaming students holding up their copies of the book. The FBI took an interest in the two-hundred-page vaguely threatening letter sent by a man who insisted that he was actually The Giver, and advised me not to go near the city where he lived. A teenage girl wrote that she had been considering suicide until she read The Giver. One young man wrote a proposal of marriage to his girlfriend inside the book and gave it to her (she said yes). But a woman told me in a letter that I was clearly a disturbed person and she hoped I would get some help.

Somehow, this book, and what it has to say, has touched a lot of people from all walks of life—and from many cultures, since over the years it has been translated into countless languages, from Czech to Hungarian to Thai. Recently I have reluctantly turned down invitations to speak about The Giver in Kyrgyzstan and Korea, where I am told readers are just as affected by it as they are in Toledo and Tucson.

Will it have the same effect as a film? It’s hard to know. A book is such an individual and private thing. The reader brings his or her own history and beliefs and concerns, and reads in solitude, creating each scene from his own imagination as he does.

A movie, by its nature, puts it all out there, makes it visual. It’s what I love about film, actually: the composition of each scene, the lighting, the color . . . or lack of color. But film must incorporate details that a reader might have pictured in another way. A costume designer decided what little Gabriel and all the other infants in the Nurturing Center wear. Maybe you had dressed them differently in your mind. A set designer created the plans for the dwellings in which Jonas and Fiona and all the other members of the community live. If you imagined a different kind of dwelling, as I did, then you have to adjust your thinking. The landscape through which Jonas travels with the kidnapped baby is not the landscape I saw inside my head; the cinematographer gives us something vaster, more magnificent, and infinitely more hostile to a desperate boy trying to save an infant and the whole world.

The important thing is that a film doesn’t obliterate a book. The movie is here now. But the book hasn’t gone away. It has simply grown up, grown larger, and begun to glisten in a new way.

—Lois Lowry

One

IT WAS ALMOST December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. No. Wrong word, Jonas thought. Frightened meant that deep, sickening feeling of something terrible about to happen. Frightened was the way he had felt a year ago when an unidentified aircraft had overflown the community twice. He had seen it both times. Squinting toward the sky, he had seen the sleek jet, almost a blur at its high speed, go past, and a second later heard the blast of sound that followed. Then one more time, a moment later, from the opposite direction, the same plane.

At first, he had been only fascinated. He had never seen aircraft so close, for it was against the rules for Pilots to fly over the community. Occasionally, when supplies were delivered by cargo planes to the landing field across the river, the children rode their bicycles to the riverbank and watched, intrigued, the unloading and then the takeoff directed to the west, always away from the community.

But the aircraft a year ago had been different. It was not a squat, fat-bellied cargo plane but a needle-nosed single-pilot jet. Jonas, looking around anxiously, had seen others—adults as well as children—stop what they were doing and wait, confused, for an explanation of the frightening event.

Then all of the citizens had been ordered to go into the nearest building and stay there. IMMEDIATELY, the rasping voice through the speakers had said. LEAVE YOUR BICYCLES WHERE THEY ARE.

Instantly, obediently, Jonas had dropped his bike on its side on the path behind his family’s dwelling. He had run indoors and stayed there, alone. His parents were both at work, and his little sister, Lily, was at the Childcare Center where she spent her after-school hours.

Looking through the front window, he had seen no people: none of the busy afternoon crew of Street Cleaners, Landscape Workers, and Food Delivery people who usually populated the community at that time of day. He saw only the abandoned bikes here and there on their sides; an upturned wheel on one was still revolving slowly.

He had been frightened then. The sense of his own community silent, waiting, had made his stomach churn. He had trembled.

But it had been nothing. Within minutes the speakers had crackled again, and the voice, reassuring now and less urgent, had explained that a Pilot-in-Training had misread his navigational instructions and made a wrong turn. Desperately the Pilot had been trying to make his way back before his error was noticed.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, HE WILL BE RELEASED, the voice had said, followed by silence. There was an ironic tone to that final message, as if the Speaker found it amusing; and Jonas had smiled a little, though he knew what a grim statement it had been. For a contributing citizen to be released from the community was a final decision, a terrible punishment, an overwhelming statement of failure.

Even the children were scolded if they used the term lightly at play, jeering at a teammate who missed a catch or stumbled in a race. Jonas had done it once, had shouted at his best friend, That’s it, Asher! You’re released! when Asher’s clumsy error had lost a match for his team. He had been taken aside for a brief and serious talk by the coach, had hung his head with guilt and embarrassment, and apologized to Asher after the game.

Now, thinking about the feeling of fear as he pedaled home along the river path, he remembered that moment of palpable, stomach-sinking terror when the aircraft had streaked above. It was not what he was feeling now with December approaching. He searched for the right word to describe his own feeling.

Jonas was careful about language. Not like his friend, Asher, who talked too fast and mixed things up, scrambling words and phrases until they were barely recognizable and often very funny.

Jonas grinned, remembering the morning that Asher had dashed into the classroom, late as usual, arriving breathlessly in the middle of the chanting of the morning anthem. When the class took their seats at the conclusion of the patriotic hymn, Asher remained standing to make his public apology as was required.

I apologize for inconveniencing my learning community. Asher ran through the standard apology phrase rapidly, still catching his breath. The Instructor and class waited patiently for his explanation. The students had all been grinning, because they had listened to Asher’s explanations so many times before.

"I left home at the correct time but when I was riding along near the hatchery, the crew was separating some salmon. I guess I just got distraught, watching them.

I apologize to my classmates, Asher concluded. He smoothed his rumpled tunic and sat down.

We accept your apology, Asher. The class recited the standard response in unison. Many of the students were biting their lips to keep from laughing.

I accept your apology, Asher, the Instructor said. He was smiling. And I thank you, because once again you have provided an opportunity for a lesson in language. ‘Distraught’ is too strong an adjective to describe salmon-viewing. He turned and wrote distraught on the instructional board. Beside it he wrote distracted.

Jonas, nearing his home now, smiled at the recollection. Thinking, still, as he wheeled his bike into its narrow port beside the door, he realized that frightened was the wrong word to describe his feelings, now that December was almost here. It was too strong an adjective.

He had waited a long time for this special December. Now that it was almost upon him, he wasn’t frightened, but he was . . . eager, he decided. He was eager for it to come. And he was excited, certainly. All of the Elevens were excited about the event that would be coming so soon.

But there was a little shudder of nervousness when he thought about it, about what might happen.

Apprehensive, Jonas decided. That’s what I am.

Who wants to be the first tonight, for feelings? Jonas’s father asked, at the conclusion of their evening meal.

It was one of the rituals, the evening telling of feelings. Sometimes Jonas and his sister, Lily, argued over turns, over who would get to go first. Their parents, of course, were part of the ritual; they, too, told their feelings each evening. But like all parents—all adults—they didn’t fight and wheedle for their turn.

Nor did Jonas, tonight. His feelings were too complicated this evening. He wanted to share them, but he wasn’t eager to begin the process of sifting through his own complicated emotions, even with the help that he knew his parents could give.

You go, Lily, he said, seeing his sister, who was much younger—only a Seven—wiggling with impatience in her chair.

I felt very angry this afternoon, Lily announced. "My Childcare group was at the play area, and we had a visiting group of Sevens, and they didn’t obey the rules at all. One of them—a male; I don’t know his name—kept going right to the front of the line for the slide, even though the rest of us were all waiting. I felt so angry at him. I made my hand into a fist, like this." She held up a clenched fist and the rest of the family smiled at her small defiant gesture.

Why do you think the visitors didn’t obey the rules? Mother asked.

Lily considered,

Reviews for The Giver Movie Tie-in Edition

[madmattreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow this held my attention all the way thru. Could not put it down. Would not want to live like that in the land of Sameness. Appreciate seeing in colors and making my own choices and having real feelings. Amazingly told story!

[regoodrich · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Giver is a well-written dystopian story. Lois Lowry gradually and subtly opens the eyes of readers as they experience the mental and moral awakening of the main character, Jonas. The book brings about a greater appreciation for simple choices, joys, and freedoms many of us take for granted. The social ease and contentment that exists in this fantasy world comes at a cost Jonas is unwilling to support after learning how real knowledge and choice have been sacrificed to attain it. This book makes one realize that every seemingly good law chips away to some extent at personal freedom, and those losses, if allowed to amass, can undermine the intended good. It is certainly a thought-provoking book.

[foof2you · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A world where sameness is the norm. No color, no dissent,where big brother is watching. Where families talk about how they slept and did they dream at breakfast and how their day was at dinner.

[pferdina · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

People in the Community have chosen Sameness so that everyone lives well ordered, non troubled lives. Only one member of the Community is designated to keep the memories for all. When Jonas discovers the truth at age 12, he has to decide how to continue within this very strange world.

[jynell-71874 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book - so well written! I love the alternative world it draws me to, the themes... I love that I can read it again and again and in 1 day.

[spiritedstardust · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I loved the idea and the potential this had, but as it is such a short book it's over before anything can really be explored or characters can grow on you.



The 'things' the new society chose to remove, such as colours, and the choices they made regarding people's lives was interesting.The fact that basically everyone gets turned into a complaint drone in order to achieve peace and obedience was disturbing, it goes back to the premise that if you want true peace then you need to remove everyone's free will. And as a result, I don't believe any of the citizens knew what real happiness, or in fact, love, was. To me, their lives felt empty and pointless other than their contributing to the 'running' of the place.

What I disliked was the ending, which was ambiguous and unfinished, I see that there was a follow up book written continuing the story.

[charon07 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It was very good as far as it went, but it didn't go far enough. What happened to the community after Jonas left? Did those two die at the end? What was "beyond"? There could have been a better consideration of the pros and cons of the community's way of life.

[101reasonswhy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not sure how I made it through childhood and years of working in a bookstore without reading this book. It is a quick read but very well-written and thought provoking. I see why it is on so many summer reading lists.

The ending reminded me a bit of To build a fire but with slightly more ambiguity. Really wish that there had been one more paragraph where someone walks towards them from a house with warm windows and a lit tree.

[quondame · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book asks the imprisoned child in Omelas to bite her keeper and escape into the sun. Of course we all are the child and the citizens of Omelas with our clever gadgets, easily procured clothing and sundries, we live less than we could and give less than we should for the most part. Using dystopic-utopias to ask what it is and what it requires to be human is part, asking what it costs is something else.

[ssperson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic book. I've intended to read it for a while, but my oldest son encouraged me to read it now because he wants to see the movie.

It can sometimes feel like were overwhelmed with dystopian novels, so it's important to remember that this predates The Hunger Games and its contemporary counterparts.

I definitely need to get the rest of the books in the series, as my son and I are both curious to learn what happens next.

[emscape · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Upon reading this again as an adult, I found this book quite a bit more depressing than I had remembered. Several of the bigger themes must have gone straight over my head. I also remember having been disappointed about the ending, but back then I didn't know that there were sequels. I'm excited to read the rest of this story.

[book58lover · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lowry's description of a world without color is amazing. What an imagination. I can understand the controversy surrounding the plot but that shouldn't stop anyone from looking at the broader issues.

[payday1999-430350 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I remember reading this in school and I remember liking it. I'm very interested in seeing the movie. I don't remember reading the other books because back than it wasn't easy to keep track which books were in a series.

I can't wait to see where the author decided to take her book.

[sami7-951065 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nice & easy read. Has its good food for thought moments. It is a children book that has gone wild & resonated with adult audience.

[roxiet-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I started reading this book many years ago when I was younger--can't remember why I never finished the series. But, the plot of "The Giver" definitely puts life in perspective--almost giving off an eerie feeling. Funny how children books can seem more applicable to life when we're older.

[yukinatsuo-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I did not see that coming for the release nevertheless the book was pretty enjoyable. The ending though was abit abrupt.

Can't wait to see how the movie version goes for this :)

[steller0707 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I can see why fantasy fans like this dystopian novel. I also see how it can provoke discussion; that makes it an interesting read. But there are lots of pieces that don't quite "fit" for me.

[cindywho-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was glad this was short, because I couldn't shake the feeling of something being off. The distopia disguised as utopia was interesting, but the memory transfer idea was never really explained. I think I must have read this years ago, but had forgotten it completely. Not sure if I'll go for the next ones. The audiobook performance was often interrupted by odd electronic music and the reader's voice was unnervingly squeaky when portraying Jonas' voice.

[bookscantgetenough · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was AMAZING. The society seems so perfect to those living within it but as Jonas started to receive more memories he found that it was completely flawed. I recently read anthem by Ayn Rand and I can see some connections to that book, I don't know if these books are connected to each other.

[mbmackay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Teen fiction that has become a classic - and also attracted derogatory criticism. I found it to be a good read, and usefully thought provoking.

[jackiejjay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

About what could happen in the future as far as society or the world being controlled, stripped of choices.

[melsbks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Troubling book. How much would you give up for peace and security? Your ability to choose? Your memories? Your feelings? For a perfect world. Jonah's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war, no fear, no pain.

[saudia89 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Re-read this book after 10 years and still great!

[carlahaunted · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"Thank you for your childhood."

This book is on the list of best books I have ever read--perhaps in the top ten, or even top five. I read it in one exquisite, gasping, weeping session.

[brittburditt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Giver provides a look into what a perfect society that has failed would look like. The text challenges the reader in attempting to understand a different world. The reader will have to make inferences throughout the book in order for them to better comprehend the book. The material is well written and provides thought-provoking information and new vocabulary.

[starla_aurora · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

oh the splendor of utopia.... that ending is one left to the imagination.

[cassandrat-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It all went down hill towards the end.

[impactwriter · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A friend gave this book to me as a gift. Twice, while in the early stages of reading it out in public, people approached me to tell me that it was a favorite read for them, which made the book that much more compelling.

This book was excellent! There are a few embedded lessons within the pages that will really rock you if you have a mind to listen while reading.

Highly recommend!

[margaretfield · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Future in which emotions and choices are minimized. Careers and families are assigned. One person is assigned to be The Giver - the only one who holds the memories of humanity's past. It's meant for kids, even so it seems overly simplified.

[abycats_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I found this book less satisfying than many other YA fiction I've tried. One always expects some simplicity but this book seemed highly derivative until the main character's selection as the Keeper of Memories. After that, the book became somewhat less predictable, but still lacked depth. I thought the ending abrupt (perhaps in preparation for many sequels?). I picked this up primarily because a movie is coming out in August. Perhaps the movie will be better.