J and I both just finished reading Lois Lowry's book, "The Giver."  It was leant to J by her 5th grade teacher at the end of school.  I had heard about this book from a few online sources as well as another parent who is a middle school librarian.  Everyone said, "It's a book that you really have to think about."  They were all right.

I love that Lowry wrote such a challenging book for school age kids.  It's not challenging in the language per se, it's the ideas that it presents--the ideas of perfection in society, government control, emotions and memory, and death.  Some people would wonder why these topics were included in a so-called 'children's' book, but in J's and my experience, we both got different things out of it.  I always say your reaction to a book, piece of music, movie, art, or theater is often based on what you bring to the experience.  That was certainly the case here, and definitely in a good way.

The main character, Jonas, lives with his family unit in a society where everything is governed and nothing is questioned (no one is really bothered by this either).  No one feels any real emotions, can see colors or hear music.  Turning 12 means Jonas will be assigned to his future job and begin training.  Jonas is selected to be the community's "Receiver" or stronghold of past memories.  He is trained by a man he calls, "The Giver."  Through the training process, he learns what real emotions are, and the revelations will cause him to change the path of his life, as well as those around him. 

I will admit, if you have an overly sensitive kid, this may not be the book for you.  One scene in particular was very hard for me to read, even though I had guessed that what was going to happen.  I will say that J didn't have as strong a reaction as I did when reading the same scene, but again, I attribute that to the whole experience thing I mentioned above.  But if you want a great book that will provoke some really important conversations, this is a great read.  The ending can be interpreted several different ways, but we both agreed that we liked that not everything is spelled out for the reader. 

Jessica even emailed the author and just today received a response!  She was absolutely thrilled that a real author responded to her.  This may have made an even bigger impression on her than the book itself.  Thanks for the lovely reply, Mrs. Lowry.  We're putting the companion novels "Gathering Blue" and "Messenger" on our to-read list!