Who Wrote The Giver, How Long Is It, and What Genre Is It?
A Newbery winner that started with a visit to an ageing father
The Giver was written by Lois Lowry, an American author, and published in 1993 by Houghton Mifflin. It is short, about 180 pages and roughly 43,000 words, and most readers finish it in three to four hours.
It is a young adult dystopian novel, often also called soft science fiction, and it won the 1994 Newbery Medal.
The Giver in brief
| Fact | Answer |
|---|---|
| Author | Lois Lowry, born 1937 |
| Published | 1993, Houghton Mifflin |
| Length | About 180 pages; about 43,000 words; 23 chapters |
| Reading time | Around 3 to 4 hours |
| Genre | Dystopian young adult fiction, soft science fiction |
| Reading level | Usually taught in grades 6 to 8 |
| Award | Newbery Medal, 1994 |
| Series | First of The Giver Quartet |
Who is Lois Lowry?
Lois Lowry was born in Honolulu in 1937, the daughter of an army dentist, and spent parts of her childhood in Pennsylvania and in Japan. She began publishing books for young readers in the 1970s, including the funny Anastasia Krupnik series. She is one of the few authors to win the Newbery Medal twice: for Number the Stars, about a Danish family protecting a friend during the Nazi occupation, in 1990, and for The Giver in 1994.
↑ Back to the topWhat inspired The Giver?
Lowry has said the idea came partly from visiting her elderly father, who was losing his memory. He had forgotten painful things, including the death of her sister, and seemed calmer for it. She began to wonder what a life without painful memories would be like, and what would be lost along with the pain. That question, combined with her own memories of living in tidy, closed communities, became Jonas's world.
↑ Back to the topIs The Giver dystopian or utopian?
Both, which is the point. The community looks like a utopia at first: no hunger, no crime, no pain, everyone looked after. As Jonas learns its secrets, it turns out to be a dystopia, a society that has paid for its comfort with freedom, feeling and the truth. The Giver was one of the books that made dystopian stories a staple of young adult fiction, long before The Hunger Games and Divergent.
↑ Back to the topWhat age is The Giver for?
It is written for readers around eleven and up and is widely taught in middle schools in the United States, Canada and Australia. Some scenes are disturbing, especially one in which Jonas watches a recording of his father at work, so parents of younger readers may want to read it first or read it together.
↑ Back to the topMore about The Giver
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