Why Is The Giver Banned?
A Newbery winner that has also been one of the most challenged books in America
The Giver has been challenged mainly because of its dark themes: the killing of babies and old people disguised as release, a character who chooses to die, and the Stirrings, the first feelings of attraction. Some critics also called it too violent or depressing for children.
It appeared on the American Library Association's lists of the 100 most frequently challenged books for both the 1990s and the 2000s. In most places, the challenges failed and the book stayed on shelves.
Why the book has been challenged
| Reason given | What it refers to |
|---|---|
| Infanticide | Jonas's father releasing a newborn twin |
| Euthanasia | The release of the old |
| A chosen death | Rosemary asking to be released |
| Sexual content | The Stirrings and the pill that stops them |
| Violence | Memories of war that the Giver passes to Jonas |
| Anti-family or anti-authority | A boy who rejects his parents and community |
Where has The Giver been challenged?
Challenges began soon after the book won the Newbery Medal in 1994 and continued for years, mostly in American school districts where parents asked for it to be removed from reading lists or libraries. The ALA placed it among the most challenged books of the 1990s and of the 2000s. Most cases ended with the book kept, sometimes with an alternative assignment offered to students whose parents objected.
↑ Back to the topThe scene most objections focus on
Most complaints centre on chapter 19, in which Jonas watches his father release a newborn. Lowry writes it simply, without gore, but its quiet horror is what readers remember. Defenders point out that the scene is the moral heart of the book: it is supposed to shock, because it shows what a society can do when it values comfort over life.
↑ Back to the topWhat Lois Lowry has said
Lowry has spoken against book banning many times. She has argued that the book is precisely about the danger of a society that decides what people may know and feel, and that removing it from children repeats the very mistake it describes. She has also said she trusts young readers to handle difficult ideas, especially with adults to talk to.
↑ Back to the topIs The Giver appropriate for children?
It is written for readers from about eleven, and millions of middle school students read it every year. The disturbing moments are brief and handled with restraint. For a sensitive child, reading it together and talking about chapter 19 and the ending works better than avoiding the book, which has helped generations of readers think about freedom, memory and choice.
↑ Back to the topMore about The Giver
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