Comments on: Top 100 Children’s Novels (#7)

By: Top 100: 2010 Picks for Best Children’s Novels (grades 3-8) : PragmaticMom

Top 100: 2010 Picks for Best Children’s Novels (grades 3-8) : PragmaticMom — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:18:57 +0000

[...] From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg#6 Holes by Louis Sachar#7 The Giver by Lois Lowry#8 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett#9 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. [...]

By: RM1(SS) (ret)

RM1(SS) (ret) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:57:24 +0000

Hey – where’d my comment go? Let’s try that again….

If I could have read this in junior high (or even high school), I probably would have loved it. However, comma…. I was 39 when it came out, and I don’t think I even heard of it before I started reading the Newberys three years ago – and by then I’d been a big S M Stirling fan for years. I think my first dystopia was 1984, back when I was in high school. (Note to self: Reread that!)

Didn’t even come close to a spot on my Top Ten prediction. Not sure if I would even have put it on a Top 100 prediction….

By: Jess

Jess — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:32:55 +0000

I know part of my love of the book is that it was my first exposure to dystopian lit, and I can see how the dystopian elements wouldn’t have the same impact reading it as an adult, but I still hold that Lowry’s writing is pretty darn near perfect in The Giver. Although now I really want to reread Anastasia…

By: Yukari

Yukari — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:08:02 +0000

I was late reading this book; it was last year with the middle-school girl I tutor. I loved it, she didn’t get it at all and I was desperately trying to get her to understand the Dystopian idea. Having read it for her middle school English class I wasn’t sure this was a middle grade book, but I see that many people read it much younger. Maybe I’ll read it with my son …

Coincidentally, I found this cover today (by one of my favorite indie graphic artists): picturebookreport.com/2010/03/25/news-lucy-knisley-vs-the-giver/

By: DaNae

DaNae — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:23:25 +0000

A great mind-bending introduction to a Despotic State; I love to watch my 6th graders implode upon the impact of this idea.

I have a friend who thinks Lowry was subliminally influenced by a Sylvia Engdahl plot.

I’m tickled to hear of other Anastasia Krupnik fans. I tried to name my only daughter Anastasia, but her father would have none of that.

Thank you for the story behind the cover.

4 for 4, but only one in the correct spot. At this point I can only hope to get 2 or 3 more in the right spot.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:59:47 +0000

I was underwhelmed by THE GIVER as well. So put me in with the other readers of dystopian fiction. But I can understand why it would hit people hard if it was their first real exposure to the genre.

By: Miriam

Miriam — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:59:38 +0000

I can see not enjoying The Giver as much if you’ve already been exposed to dystopian lit… but man oh man, it was the first I read, and started my love for the genre. (Invitation to the Game was also on my personal top-ten, and The Green Book barely missed the cut. And that’s not even counting the mountains of adult ones.)

By: Connie

Connie — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:57:32 +0000

Yep, I completely left The Giver off my top ten predictions … perhaps because I teach this book every year in my YA Lit. class for grad. students. It creates wonderful class discussions and, even though Jonas is 12, I’ve always felt the themes and images were for older kids. Hmmm. All your comments are fascinating. And now I have to decide which of my own predictions bites the dust today … guess it will have to be Treasure Island?

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:42:27 +0000

My son just read The Giver this past month, was completely blown away by it, and insisted that it had to be in the top ten. (So thanks, kiddo! I even got it right at #7.)
I hadn’t read it until a few years back, and thought it was good, but like someone above said, I’d read too many dystopian novels by then for it to knock me out. But reading it with him was a new experience.

By: Melissa ZD

Melissa ZD — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:33:46 +0000

I still remember being THE ONLY ONE in my children’s lit course at library school who was sure Jonas died at the end. For me, it was so clearly a “Little Match Girl” ending that I never went on to read the sequels.