The Giver is a soft science fiction novel written by Lois Lowry in 1993. It is set in a future society which is at first presented as a utopia and gradually appears more and more dystopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth year of his life. Jonas's society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness", a move which has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of "Receiver of Memory", the man who stores all the memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed. As Jonas receives the memories from his predecessor—the Giver—he discovers how shallow his Community's life has become. Despite controversy and adverse criticism from some readers, who profess concern that the book's subject material is inappropriate for young children, The Giver won the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold more than 3.5 million copies. In Lowry's native United States, it is a part of many middle-school or junior-high reading lists. The novel forms a loose trilogy with Gathering Blue (2000) and Messenger (2004), two other books set in the same future period.
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1776: Captain Nathan Hale, an American Revolutionary spy from the Continental Army, was hanged by British forces. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Hale)
1862: History of slavery in the United States: President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in Confederate territory by January 1, 1863. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation)
1869: Das Rheingold, the first of four operas in Der Ring des Nibelungen by German composer Richard Wagner, debuted in Munich. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Rheingold)
1961: The U.S. Congress authorized President John F. Kennedy's executive order creating the Peace Corps. Within two years, over 7,300 Peace Corps volunteers were serving in 44 countries. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Corps)
1980: Iraq launched an invasion of Iran, starting the Iran-Iraq War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War)
_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:
"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." -- George Eliot (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot)