The Giver?

[SierraNevada]

Has anyone read this book that would recommend it for a younger audience? It keeps popping up in my Amazon feed and though I have heard of it in passing it was written long after I stopped reading children's books. Seems like it might be a heavy (topically) book. Any thoughts?

[Uff Da!]

I wouldn't give it to a six year old.

 

Spoiler:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has a father committing infanticide and not even being aware that he is killing a child.

[Cera]

My (very) mature 9 year old read it and did okay with it but it has a lot of heavy topics.  My 7 year old has not read it, partially because I think the topics would be so far over her head she would miss the point of the book.  

 

Did you know it is part of a trilogy?  I did not until I saw the others pop up in my amazon feed.

[Dmmetler]

I haven't let my DD read it yet. She doesn't handle characters in books dying well, and stopped Harry Potter at the end of book 5 for that reason. I think she'd be quite upset by the concept of "release"-and that the characters in The Giver (except for the Giver and Jonas) don't realize that it's happening.

 

 

[Erin]

Middle school, yes.  

Elementary, doubtful.

[MiMi 4under3]

My 7th grader is now reading it...

 

I let her read anything as long as it's "literature" and not "garbage."

[SierraNevada]

Okay, from the sound of it, I'd say that is a "no"!

Thanks all.

[texasmama]

This book was part of my lit analysis co op class last year.  The ages of the kids ranged from 10-13.  Much depends on maturity and sensitivity of the individual kid, but I would not give this book to a 6 year old.  The themes are too abstract for a child this age to process them developmentally, and so much other wonderful literature exists for this age group. 

 

(I have an 11 year old currently reading Schindler's List so I am not opposed to kids dealing with "heavy" topics, as a point of reference.)

[AMJ]

I just read the Wikipedia page about this book. Heady (and heavy) stuff, it looks like. I'm not a fan of dystopian works, but this looks like it might be worthwhile. I'll read it myself first, them will see how to present it to the kids. We will likely read it together, so we can discuss it along the way.

[AMJ]

I'm the same way and I cried reading The Giver. I cry over books a lot though.

 

I can't get through certain parts of Charlotte's Web. I did it as a read aloud and during some parts I just handed the book to my kids and said, you will have to read this part to yourself. I can't handle it.

Thank you for the reminder. I've been meaning to get Charlotte's Web for my kids.

[Erin]

I just read the Wikipedia page about this book. Heady (and heavy) stuff, it looks like. I'm not a fan of dystopian works, but this looks like it might be worthwhile. I'll read it myself first, them will see how to present it to the kids. We will likely read it together, so we can discuss it along the way.

 

Oh it's an excellent story.  Very thought-provoking...one of those books that will rattle around in the back of your mind for a long time to come.  

And I agree with the same book being appreciated, though differently, by kids at different levels.  

My example is always Huck Finn.  It was just an adventure story when I read it as a 6th grader.  But when I read it in Am.Lit as a Junior, and again in college, I got completely different things out of it.

[AMJ]

Oh it's an excellent story. Very thought-provoking...one of those books that will rattle around in the back of your mind for a long time to come.

And I agree with the same book being appreciated, though differently, by kids at different levels.

My example is always Huck Finn. It was just an adventure story when I read it as a 6th grader. But when I read it in Am.Lit as a Junior, and again in college, I got completely different things out of it.

We've been interrupted and need to get started again, but my kids and I were reading Tom Sawyer together. They have so many questions it's better to do it together when my mind isn't on something else.

 

I'm wondering whether sensitive youngest (almost age 10) is ready for Where the Red Fern Grows....

[sunnyday]

My husband is in a men's book club and they read this a few months ago so I grabbed it when he was done. It reminded me a lot of Brave New World with the drugged, sexually complacent population subverting the meaning and purpose of family. It creeped me out enough that I don't want to read the sequels. Not really sure what my kids would get out of it -- the "giving" and "receiving" is interesting, and the hierarchy of responsibility that the children pass through, and the way the protagonist's knowledge causes him to break the mold of his community. But I am not sure I'd want to read it with him and hope he glossed over the mature bits!

[Erin]

We've been interrupted and need to get started again, but my kids and I were reading Tom Sawyer together. They have so many questions it's better to do it together when my mind isn't on something else.

 

I'm wondering whether sensitive youngest (almost age 10) is ready for Where the Red Fern Grows....

 

No one is ready for Where the Red Fern Grows!

 *sniffle* :sad:

 

 

However, it's been my observation that that one is a classic in the well-read 5th and 6th grade rooms.  So your almost-10 is probably fine.

[Dmmetler]

If you read it, follow it by "No More Dead Dogs" by Gordon Korman-his middle school protagonists spoof the "the dog always dies if there's a medal on the cover", by taking over a school play made from such a book and changing it to what THEY want. It's a typical GK novel (ie-fairly light and silly).

 

 

[Erin]

I'm going to have my daughter read No More Dead Dogs this summer.  ;)

She did Where the Red Fern Grows last summer and just finished Sounder, for school.  lol

[EndOfOrdinary]

We read it as a family when my son was about six. My husband had not read it, but was teaching Brave New World by Huxley to his high schoolers and had a student who was very low. I suggested The a Giver for said student and we did a read aloud on a backpacking trip.

 

At that point, my son had been a "society questioner" for a few years. That part did not bother him. He actually found it rather inspiring that Jonas did something, however I do not know how much he really got. Like a previous poster talked about, I think he really was only affected by specific parts which he was personally attached to while missing others. He did dislike the hanging ending, because we only read the one and not all of them. He is reading it himself, along with the other three books in the series, next year for fifth grade. We will see how it goes over.

 

You might be interested in Anthem by Ayn Rand. It is still a very jarring look at societies, but less disturbing. There is only one "death scene" that might be a problem. The whole book is around 100 pages. Pre- read it obviously, but it would take an adult less than three hours.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I didn't love the book myself - I had too much trouble suspending disbelief over the mechanisms that made things work - but Shannon and I read and discussed it this year (6th grade) and it was excellent, one of our most interesting and thought-provoking discussions to date.  I don't think she would have gotten as much out of it had she read it earlier, so I'm glad we waited till she was 11.  We also read The Lottery and The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (slightly expurgated - I left out the paragraph on orgies and drug use as I read it aloud) aloud together afterwards, and it was a great mini-dystopian unit, very thought-provoking.

[eternalsummer]

I love The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

 

In The Giver, the people who are killing people all know what is happening; the dad knows he's killing the baby, and Fiona (was that her name?) knows that the old people are euthanized.

 

If you like The Giver, the last book in the trilogy, Son, is quite good.  They're not much alike, but Son is emotionally powerful (probably not of much interest to kids, though).

[Chrysalis Academy]

I agree, of the 4 books in the series (The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son), the first and last are the best.  Son is set partly in Jonas's community, too, and gives you an interesting alternate perspective on it.    I didn't care for Messenger at all.  

[mamabear2three]

I couldn't read A Brave New World myself - I about had a mental melt down while reading 1984 as a required book in high school and my parents allowed me to opt out of Brave New World. But I LOVED the Giver... oddly enough. I didn't know it was a series though! 

 

That said, I'm not sure when I'll have my daughter read it. I think middle school at least for the heavy themes. But then I feel the same for Harry Potter because of the witch craft. She's so sensitive to things that she feels are "wrong", the Three Little Pigs upset her for a long time!

[Lifebreakingin]

My mom always said The Giver (it was hugely popular right after I stopping reading kid's lit for myself but she worked with kids then so she read it) was like A Wrinkle in Time, but evil wins. I'm not sure about her assessment (when I read it, as I became a teacher, I saw it as open ended) but I always figured AWIT could be a good book instead, and I did just let my just turned 7yo read it. Similar ideas about conformity without quite so much specific death etc.

[ocelotmom]

We've been interrupted and need to get started again, but my kids and I were reading Tom Sawyer together. They have so many questions it's better to do it together when my mind isn't on something else.

 

I'm wondering whether sensitive youngest (almost age 10) is ready for Where the Red Fern Grows....

 

I was pretty sensitive as a child, and read WTRFG at 8 or 9. It made me cry, but didn't traumatize me. But I'm also the type who goes for the cathartic books that are going to give me a good cry. My DS isn't (he's one of the ones who refuses to read further in Harry Potter series after the 5th book) - I have WTRFG on our bookshelf, but have never suggested he read it. 

 

If you like The Giver, the last book in the trilogy, Son, is quite good.  They're not much alike, but Son is emotionally powerful (probably not of much interest to kids, though).

 

I guess I'll have to read it. I didn't really like the second and third book, and I thought that tying those two in with The Giver was rather awkward. They really didn't feel like they took place in the same literary universe. Hopefully the last one will reconcile them better!

[eternalsummer]

Son is the story of what happens to Gabriel's birthmother; part of it is set in the community of The Giver.  Lois Lowry's own son died when he was in his 20s, I think, and the book reads pretty clearly as her processing of that loss.

 

ETA: I forgot there were actually 4 of them in the series!  The middle two were not that memorable to me either (obviously, hah)

[lizbusby]

I first read the Giver in a fourth grade class in a gifted magnet program. I adored it. The open ending bugged the heck out of me as a kid, but after a while, I loved it. Still one of my favorite books that I reread and re-listened to many times over the years, along with A Wrinkle in Time. Both are definitely great. However, I was not a kid super sensitive to death (as in, not afraid of it). I was interested in thinking about death, the structure of society (wrote a system of laws with a friend in first grade), and risk versus safety at a very young age, and this book played into that.

[lizbusby]

If you like The Giver, the last book in the trilogy, Son, is quite good.  They're not much alike, but Son is emotionally powerful (probably not of much interest to kids, though).

 

Yes, Son is very good, although better for a mother than a child. It fits more literarily with the Giver than the other two. Gathering Blue feels like a toned down version of the Giver, and Messenger is just plain odd. Unfortunately, the ending to Son is wrapped up in those books, so you have to kind of read them all to get it, although most of the book is completely unrelated.