My twelve-year-old son wrote this for his homeschool book club, and gave me permission to share it.
The Giver is a science fiction book written by Lois Lowry. It’s intended for middle-grade readers. The story’s setting is a future version of Earth where there’s no starvation, but the government strictly controls everything.
Jonas is a typical boy about to turn twelve. He is part of a community that does not know much emotional pain. But when the Giver selects him at the ceremony of twelves to be the new Receiver of Memory, a job held in high honor, Jonas learns that there will be more pain and suffering throughout his training than he has ever experienced.
What I like about the story is that there is no starvation, everyone enjoys their job, and the weather is controlled. However, there’s no snow and the government controls everything, including killing people who don’t fit in with the genetic standard.
The Giver had some emotionally intense moments, but overall, I really enjoyed the story and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories about determination and the preservation of life.
About The Giver
The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. Lois Lowry has written three companion novels to The Giver, including Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.
About Lois Lowry
Lois Lowry is known for her versatility and invention as a writer. She was born in Hawaii and grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, and Japan. After studying at Brown University, she married, started a family, and turned her attention to writing. She is the author of more than forty books for young adults, including the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader’s Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER. Her first novel, A SUMMER TO DIE, was awarded the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award. Several books have been adapted to film and stage, and THE GIVER has become an opera. Ms. Lowry now divides her time between Maine and Florida. To learn more about Lois Lowry, see her website at www.loislowry.com
K.A. Cummins 
A great review! I read The Giver a few years ago. It was definitely unique.
Thanks, Katie! He enjoyed it and read it twice in the same week. After hearing him and our middle child talk about it, it’s definitely on my TBR pile. And it seems there’s a movie based on the book too?