The first book, written about 20 years ago, became one of my favorite books during my first year of teaching - although I had been hearing about it since middle school. What's the hype?
It is a dystopian novel about a young boy who begins to recognize that his seemingly perfect community is not as flawless as it seems. The first time I read it, I was upset at the ambiguous ending and thought I had put in the reading for naught. The more I read it with students, however, I loved the story more and more and realized how magical the story, and even its ending, are.
In her Newbery prize acceptance speech, Lois Lowry spoke of all the letters she received from children about the ending - complaints, praise, and even ideas about what the ending should have been. Lowry left it open on purpose - hoping that readers could create the ending that best suited their imagination.
And then came "Gathering Blue." I actually did read this in middle school, or, well, tried. Like the Giver, it's a little slower to start and also in a world so unfamiliar to mine that I couldn't anchor myself into the story and push through. I remember my students struggling with the beginning of the Giver in these ways, and how hard it was, on some days, to sell them on the idea that, "Really guys, this is a great book!"
When I first read "Gathering Blue" I had no idea about the Giver, nor did I know they were connected. With my second group of students, I found out that not only was "Gathering Blue" a companion to the Giver, but that "Messenger" made it a trilogy. I didn't make time to read either, but I had students who read Blue and highly recommended it to me.
Then I noticed, this fall, Lowry had a new book, "Son," meant to finally be the closing tale of the Giver "quartet." Kindle had new editions tying all four novels visually together so I gave the books a shot over winter break - and literally didn't look back.
Blue was still slow to start out, but got interesting about a third of the way through. I didn't have the problem of not being intrigued during the last two books - "Messenger" was a page-turner (finished it in a day) and "Son" was also incredible. Here's the low-down:
"Gathering Blue" is about a girl, who similar to the protagonist in the Giver, is in a controlling society and begins to wonder how it could be different. "Messenger" brings both books together through a third character, a boy who has seen good and bad communities and wants to bring them together. It is here that we realize that the communities in the prior two books exist in one world, and that world seems to be far in the future in our world, adding to the sense of dystopian society developing over time. "Son" ties all together, showing another character's perspective on "The Giver" story and bridging it to the characters in "Gathering Blue" and "Messenger."
In addition to the Giver's discussion of love, hope, pain, and war - the other three books have strong overtones related to America's immigration debate, family, friendship, sacrifice and an age-old battle between good and evil. Altogether fascinating and incredibly deep for YA novels.
Recommended reading for sure.
Lois Lowry (Amazon page), in addition to this series, has written so many other great books for children and young adults and has won numerous awards. She was one of my favorite authors to teach because she is such a prolific writer, and spoke about the purposes of writing and reading so often. Her work, and her words, really helped shape my philosophy of teaching literature, and also helped provide my students a lens in thinking about why they write and read.
Prime example? Also from the Newbery speech, Lowry said:
"The man that I named The Giver passed along to the boy knowledge,
history, meories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a
book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing.
It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things."
Here's to reading and the journey that comes with it,
~MJ
It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things."
Here's to reading and the journey that comes with it,
~MJ
