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.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver
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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)
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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)