"The Giver" Book Review

What would life be like with no knowledge past your own life? In The Giver Jonas lives in a world where there are no memories of the past.

The environment that Jonas lives in is a controlled environment. There is no rain, sun, hills, or color. Everyone looks similar. They all have the same color eyes except for the very few people with special light eyes. They all wear tunics everyday and because there is no color, they all look exactly alike.

In Jonas' world every December there is a ceremony. At that ceremony every kid gets something new depending on what age they are. When the kids turn 12 years old they find out their future jobs. There is a committee in their town that observes all the kids while they are doing their volunteer hours. The committee puts the 12 year olds in a job that they think would best fit them.

Jonas is one of the people with special light eyes. When he turns 12 he gets picked to be the new "Reciever." The Reciever is very important and very respected in their community. The Reciever is the only person with memories of the past. When he first goes to his job the Giver gives Jonas pleasant memories. After a while, the memories start to be painful and unpleasant. Jonas discovers that this community is not as perfect as it seems to be. The theme of this book is that everything is not what it seems to be.

I have read The Giver three times now. The first two times I read it, I hated it. Now that I actually understand everything that was going on I really like it. I would recommend this book to anyone old enough to understand.