Book Review 1: The Giver

   The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is about a boy named Jonas who was chosen to become the next receiver in his community. Jonas was chosen to be the next receiver at the Ceremony of 12. He works with the Giver, a man who was the previous receiver, who teaches Jonas the memories of the past. Jonas learns about love, war, and color and discovers all of these new things that used to be,  After Jonas learns about what really happens when you're sent to Elsewhere, he tries to save Gabriel, his little brother. Jonas' dad will have to send him to Elsewhere, which to the rest of the community is just like taking a permanent vacation because they don't know what death is. Jonas tries to explain these new feelings to his friends but they don't understand. The only way to share these "feelings" is to die, so that's what Jonas wanted to do. So, one night Jonas took Gabriel and they ran away to Elsewhere. After days of traveling, they found the sled on the top of the snow covered hill. They rode down the hill to hear music and laughter.
   One main theme in this book is to feel emotion. An example of how this theme is shown is when Jonas learns about love. "I love you, Jonas" (202). Jonas has a little brother named Gabriel that he loves very much and wants to save from going to Elsewhere. He gave him memories. "He was not aware of giving the memory; but suddenly he realized it was becoming dimmer" (147).                

   Another main theme in this book is discovering new things. An example of that is when Jonas notices little differences in his friend's hair. "As he looked up toward her going through the door, it happened; she changed" (114). Jonas learned about war, love, and color. Jonas wanted to share these new feelings with his community because they only knew happy, sad, angry; the basic emotions. The community couldn't understand without the memories. Since Jonas gave Gabriel some of the memories, now the Giver, Gabe, and Jonas are the only ones who could feel real emotion.
   I highly recommend this book to other 7th graders because it's a nice and caring book with a plot that you can imagine in your mind while you're reading. I know that there are a couple books that come after the The Giver, the titles are: Gathering Blue, The Messenger, and Son. I would also recommend these books as well. This book shows how boring it would be without emotion and I think that's an important lesson. Again, I would recommend this book to other 7th graders because it's a nice and caring book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver_(film)#mediaviewer/File:The_Giver_poster.jpg