Notes about the author

Lois Lowry was born in Hawaii, she is the middle child between her siblings, an older sister Helen and younger brother Jon. Her father was a military dentist and so her family moved around a lot and lived in many different places like New York, Tokyo and Washington DC. She married at the young age of 19 to her husband who she had four kids with before their separation in  1977. She has written more than 20 books for young adults, "The Giver", "Number the Stars" and the Anastasia Krupnik series being among them. She has earned a lot of honors like the Boston Globe-Horn Book award, the California Young Reader's Medal and the Mark Twain award; she also won the Newbery Medal award for "Number the Stars". 






Lois Lowry-Biography


"The Giver" is a science fiction novel about a young boy named Jonas whose world is turned upside down when he is appointed the coveted position of the new "Receiver of Memories". He grows up in a community that cherishes unity and dislikes individuality, if citizens do not adhere to the strict rules they are punished and could be "released" permanently. When children turn 12 they are considered adults and given positions in the community, since Jonas is the new "Receiver of Memories" he is trained by an old man called "the giver". As he goes through his training, he discovers dark secrets of his community that he finds difficult to live with. Everything he knows is questioned and he is forced to make a difficult decision that would risk his life, whether or not to leave the community for good.