Beth in SW WA Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 What age did your dc read this? I'm wondering if anyone reads this with a 3rd/4th grader. My older dc read this in 7th. I'm rereading it today. Thanks in advance! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeaganS Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I read it in 5th grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whereneverever Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I let DD1 read it this year at 7. I think as long as you discuss, it's fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffeemama Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I read it as an adult, more than 10 years ago, and am not comfortable with my DD10 reading it yet. I would need to reread it first, but from what I remember about the themes, I feel it would be more appropriate for children over 13. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splinter Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 In the public schools here, they read it in 6th grade (and I've heard of a few teachers re-teaching it in high school to go deeper). Personally, I can't stand the book and will never make my children read it, but I do think it could be done at any age, from about Grade 3 up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheApprentice Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 My oldest ds read it in ps when he was in 5th grade. And my now 6th grader read it a few weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tntgoodwin Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I read it in 3rd or 4th grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Socalimom Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 5th grade at a NYC public school where I was teaching Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dahliarw Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 (edited) I read it in 3rd or 4th grade (on my own I think right when it came out), but I was reading WWII battle atlases at that age too, so I don't know how typical the giver is at that age... -- ETA I just looked up the release year and I must have been more like 6th grade when it came out. Not sure. Was mixing this one up with another lowry book! Ooops! Edited November 9, 2011 by Dahliarw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 They were on the younger side - 3rd/4th - and we talked about it a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I think it's better saved for 5th or 6th for most kids, but I wouldn't hold an interested kid back from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 It won't hurt, but with so many great choices for the younger years, why not wait until 6th or 7th grade? It's very simple to read, as far as vocab and style, but the themes are deep and disturbing, and I don't want dd to read it yet. She'll 11. My boys read it in Jr Hi at school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZooRho Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 It won't hurt, but with so many great choices for the younger years, why not wait until 6th or 7th grade? It's very simple to read, as far as vocab and style, but the themes are deep and disturbing, and I don't want dd to read it yet. She'll 11. My boys read it in Jr Hi at school. My son read it as a high schooler, and the way it affected him I can't imagine letting a younger child read it. I had not read it before he did, had never heard of it. I too bawled through the book, It is deep a younger child really wouldn't get all that is in it. I also guess for my son, since he was probably 15 when he read it, that he was far more affected by the book because of his life experiences. we had been missionaries in Uganda for a year. He had a very special buddy at the orphanage we went to visit. Richard was about 1. He was a cute and happy baby. Had a wonderful smile. He was also not a favorite by the workers there. It was tough to see my then 11 yo realize that some kids just didn't make the cut. Sadly Richard became very sick, more than likely he had AIDS, measles also hit the orphanage, We went to visit the orphanage, I went to look for my son, I found him in the room with Richard, who had a feeding tube down his nose. He was pathetic looking. Any picture you have seen of a starving African child it is exactly how he looked. Another lady came in and said that baby needs to be held. HELD, I was afraid to touch him he looked so fragile, but hold him I did, I stood in that room, rocking him, holding him, just trying to give him love. He was in so much pain. My son had been rubbing his legs. Richard died later that night. To this day it has affected us deeply, so for us The Giver wasn't just some far fetched tale, but something that I guess especially for my son that we experienced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloversandlions Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 My son could have read this in 3rd or 4th grade, but I have waited until this year so that he'd be in a place - emotionally - where he could begin to relate to the protagonist on a level not really accessible to a younger child. Now that he's beginning to go through some of the changes that Jonas began to experience, I think it will be more powerful. I don't think it would have the same impact, at least on my son, had he read it three or four years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest StateofConfusionMom Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 7th graders is when I used it for my students.......hated the book.........but did you say it was being read to 3rd and 4th graders......how the heck did they explain the sexual content? the assisted suicide/murders? weird.......(am I thinking about the same book here......the futuristic book.......all the elderly are "killed" off, but they use a special word so it doesn't sound so bad........and then there is this bathtub scene with kids).... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majikmommie Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 The book is way too deep and disturbing for 3rd and 4th graders in my opinion. I was forced to read it in eighth grade. I remember thinking that it was weird for my teacher to want us to read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 It was, rather weirdly, my daughter's favorite book in first grade. I wouldn't have given it to her, but she read it at the Montessori school she went to and I did not know about it. She's since read it a number of times. I'm not sure at 6 what she understood. I'd recommend it for 4th-8th grade. And I don't mean "4th-8th grade reading level". I mean, a mature 9 yr old and up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I do think it's a book you should wait on until about middle school... but I wanted to put in a thought that sometimes it's actually easier for younger kids to digest the ideas in a book without becoming so emotionally embattled by them. I think some kids see allegory and simple moral messages - such as with fairy tales - much more clearly when they're, say 9, than they do when they're 13, when their life experiences and their own issues can more easily cloud a reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 There are various interviews with the author of The Giver and the why's & wherefore's of it's creation and backdrop. They are worth hunting up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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