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The Giver #1-3
The Worlds of Lois Lowry
When Jonas turns 12, he is singled out for special training from The Giver. Now, it's time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.
*
Kira, an orphan with a twisted leg, lives in a world where the weak are cast aside. When she is given a task that no other community member can carry out, Kira soon realizes she is surrounded by many mysteries and secrets--and an extraordinary power of her own.
*
Matty has always been proud to be Village's Messenger. But now that Village is closing its once-welcoming doors, Matty must make one last journey through the treacherous forest, and must make a great sacrifice to save the place he loves.
*
The Worlds of Lois Lowry are brought to life through three extraordinary characters, and the unexpected connections among their lives.
*
Kira, an orphan with a twisted leg, lives in a world where the weak are cast aside. When she is given a task that no other community member can carry out, Kira soon realizes she is surrounded by many mysteries and secrets--and an extraordinary power of her own.
*
Matty has always been proud to be Village's Messenger. But now that Village is closing its once-welcoming doors, Matty must make one last journey through the treacherous forest, and must make a great sacrifice to save the place he loves.
*
The Worlds of Lois Lowry are brought to life through three extraordinary characters, and the unexpected connections among their lives.
Paperback
First published September 1, 2006
About the author
Lois Lowry
185 books23.2k followersTaken from Lowry's website:
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.
Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.
I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.
After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...
My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.
The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.
My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.
Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.
I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.
After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...
My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.
The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.
My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
August 7, 2017
Great read as a set. Creative and interesting. Would be a great family read.
May 13, 2008
I love love love this book. I am quite obsessed with utopian literature and this is a good one. I have read this various times over the years but am adding it because I just learned that it is a part of a trilogy! Who knew? Lois Lowry is one of my favorite authors and so I grabed two of her books when I was at the library and low and behold I found they continued the story of The Giver.
I will say that The Giver is the best of the three, it gives you the most to think about. But the other two continue the story and therefore enjoyable.
I will say that The Giver is the best of the three, it gives you the most to think about. But the other two continue the story and therefore enjoyable.
October 11, 2009
The Giver was pretty good. This is kind of spoiling the ending for all of you reading this (so if you don't want to know, stop reading now), but if at the end of the The Giver you think Jonas is dead, he's not. You find that out in The Messenger.
Gathering Blue was good except there were a lot of loose ends. You kept on thinking, "It'll be explained at the end of the book, it'll be explained at the end of the book" but it wasn't, so then you thought, "It'll be explained in The Messenger, it'll be explained in the Messenger," but it wasn't. Maybe Lowry actually meant to keep those ends loose for the reader to imagine, but I would have rather it been explained with some key plot twist.
The Messenger was interesting. All of the characters come together in this book, Jonas, Kira and Mattie. Creepy forest thing...
Gathering Blue was good except there were a lot of loose ends. You kept on thinking, "It'll be explained at the end of the book, it'll be explained at the end of the book" but it wasn't, so then you thought, "It'll be explained in The Messenger, it'll be explained in the Messenger," but it wasn't. Maybe Lowry actually meant to keep those ends loose for the reader to imagine, but I would have rather it been explained with some key plot twist.
The Messenger was interesting. All of the characters come together in this book, Jonas, Kira and Mattie. Creepy forest thing...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2014
Excellent series. It's recommended for kids ages 9 and old to even adults (like me). I got the series for my grandson, who recently turned 11, before I had finished the series. Although I think he'll eventually like this, I do now believe that perhaps he's still a bit young to appreciate many of the nuances the book offers.
July 2, 2020
Check out my reviews on the main versions of each book.
April 9, 2024
The whole series was too good. If I talk abt it I'll spoil it but holyyy it was so good
January 4, 2008
I think the first two books are kind of disturbing, but the third brings the first two together. The Giver is about a broken utopia. Gathering Blue is about a different broken society, but had some different elements that I found interesting. Then, Messenger is set in a different village, and is more of a functioning society, though they are on the downward slope. I'm trying not to give too much away, but I think they are good books for initiating disscusions.
May 12, 2008
The whole trilogy is amazing. I already commented on The Giver.
Gathering Blue, the second book, is priceless in describing how goodness is a chosen act. Even out of the worst circumstances, one can choose to change his life for the better.
Messenger left me hanging and wanting more. It reads of the dark and beautiful world of human nature. The subtle unfolding of goodness becoming corrupted by greed is so true to life.
Gathering Blue, the second book, is priceless in describing how goodness is a chosen act. Even out of the worst circumstances, one can choose to change his life for the better.
Messenger left me hanging and wanting more. It reads of the dark and beautiful world of human nature. The subtle unfolding of goodness becoming corrupted by greed is so true to life.
June 4, 2008
I liked this book, but not nearly as much as The Giver. I think part of my problem was I read the book out of order--The Giver, then The Messenger, then Gathering Blue (Blue is really second and Messenger is last). I was a little slow-witted about the whole thing, but realized somewhere in the book that I knew what was going to happen. It didn't make a huge difference, but I just couldn't get into Kira's character.
May 20, 2008
I love anything written by Lois Lowry. She is a very talented and deep thinking author. The symbolism in this trilogy touches on everything from politics to religion. I especially was captivated by The Giver and The Messanger. I could read these over and over and find new insights and inspirations.
August 27, 2009
I love The Giver, but the other two books are mediocre. The other two books just reiterate the same themes: choice is good even though it brings responsibility and pain sometimes, everyone has strengths, etc. There are some neat characters in the other two books, though, and Jonas makes a reappearance in The Messenger.
July 27, 2010
Overall, great series.
Love the flow of how many of the characters were recurred throughout each book. (Especially exciting to find out that Jonas, from THE GIVER, is still alive in THE MESSENGER!)
Although, I give THE GIVER the credit as the best book of the series. GATHERING BLUE was lacking in details. THE MESSENGER was better, but not the same effect as THE GIVER.
Love the flow of how many of the characters were recurred throughout each book. (Especially exciting to find out that Jonas, from THE GIVER, is still alive in THE MESSENGER!)
Although, I give THE GIVER the credit as the best book of the series. GATHERING BLUE was lacking in details. THE MESSENGER was better, but not the same effect as THE GIVER.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 31, 2007
This trilogy is simply amazing. It is so thought-provoking to read books set in the future, and Lois Lowery has paved the way for this type of novel with The Giver. I highly recommend this for 5th grade and up.
September 16, 2007
Lois Lowry books are captivating throughout keeping the readers interst right to the end. The stories are filled with mystery, science fiction, and deep subjects which relate to life.
I have learned alot about love, friendship, and the importance of a well balanced society from these books.
I have learned alot about love, friendship, and the importance of a well balanced society from these books.
February 5, 2008
My sister-in-law let me borrow The Giver from her 4th grade class library. How did I not read this book when I was in grade school?! Once I picked it up, I just couldn't put it down! I even had to finish the series!
February 26, 2008
Lois Lowry is such a wonderful writer. Here she creates a world that says so much about the world we live in today. Start with the Giver as I did. But don't skip Gathering Blue as I did. Can't wait for the next one. But I'll read Gathering Blue in the meantime.
April 22, 2008
I liked all of these books, the giver I liked best, then gathering blue with the messenger as my least favorite because of the wierdness and the ending. They make you think and they are interesing to read.
May 13, 2008
This is for Gathering Blue. I liked it, but wished she had given more completion to a few aspects of the story. I have now read all 3 books. I think Gathering Blue is the weakest in the set, but still very good.
May 29, 2008
While many hated this series, I loved it. This book connects to the many problems of the world such as, Communism, Slavery, and many other things. Along with a great story, it has many symbols that teach anyone that is willing to learn, that if you don't use your gifts, you loose them.
June 13, 2008
These are found in the juvenile section and are great for the young reader. As an adult I would have liked these to be longer and have more of the how and why explained but they were an easy enjoyable read. These definately fit the 1984, Brave New World genre of literature.
September 3, 2008
After reading The Giver, many of my friends thought that the boy died at the end. I was delighted at the beginning of The Messenger - you learn that he did not die, but went on to creat a wonderful society. All three books were great!
November 3, 2008
I finally finished "The Messenger". I liked it, but not as much as "The Giver" or even "Gathering Blue". I thought it could have kept going, some of the story lines seemed to end quickly or did develop as much as I wanted them to.
May 25, 2010
The Giver is by far the best in the series, and while the other two are interesting and good reads neither has nearly as clear a message or point. They are all intriguing and thoughtful though, and certainly utterly worth reading.
August 20, 2013
The first book I read early last year but I read the last two in a week. I finnished the giver in three days. I love this series and will start reading son tommarow. And will read the Gossamer later. I dont normaly like the sifi fiction books but Lois Lowry you have me intranced.
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May 22, 2007Read these yearly in my 8th grade language arts class.
September 10, 2007
I would like to get this and read it!
January 27, 2008
Courtney and I bothe loved thises books. Courtney didn't like The Messenger. We both loved the Giver, it is definatly the best in the series.
February 3, 2008
The Giver is an excellent book. If you haven't read it you need to. The other books in this set are companion novels. They are pretty good, but don't even come close to The Giver.
February 8, 2008
Weird and wonderful stories. Great adventures. Strong adolescent characters.
April 23, 2008
Specifically Gathering Blue. Just as good as the Giver. I haven't read the Messenger yet, but I will.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews