Helpful Score: 5
Lois Lowry's magnificent novel of the distant future, The Giver, is set in a highly technical and emotionally repressed society. This eagerly awaited companion volume, by contrast, takes place in a village with only the most rudimentary technology, where anger, greed, envy, and casual cruelty make ordinary people's lives short and brutish. This society, like the one portrayed in The Giver, is controlled by merciless authorities with their own complex agendas and secrets. And at the center of both stories there is a young person who is given the responsibility of preserving the memory of the culture--and who finds the vision to transform it.
Kira, newly orphaned and lame from birth, is taken from the turmoil of the village to live in the grand Council Edifice because of her skill at embroidery. There she is given the task of restoring the historical pictures sewn on the robe worn at the annual Ruin Song Gathering, a solemn day-long performance of the story of their world's past. Down the hall lives Thomas the Carver, a young boy who works on the intricate symbols carved on the Singer's staff, and a tiny girl who is being trained as the next Singer. Over the three artists hovers the menace of authority, seemingly kind but suffocating to their creativity, and the dark secret at the heart of the Ruin Song.
With the help of a cheerful waif called Matt and his little dog, Kira at last finds the way to the plant that will allow her to create the missing color--blue--and, symbolically, to find the courage to shape the future by following her art wherever it may lead. With astonishing originality, Lowry has again created a vivid and unforgettable setting for this thrilling story that raises profound questions about the mystery of art, the importance of memory, and the centrality of love.
Kira, newly orphaned and lame from birth, is taken from the turmoil of the village to live in the grand Council Edifice because of her skill at embroidery. There she is given the task of restoring the historical pictures sewn on the robe worn at the annual Ruin Song Gathering, a solemn day-long performance of the story of their world's past. Down the hall lives Thomas the Carver, a young boy who works on the intricate symbols carved on the Singer's staff, and a tiny girl who is being trained as the next Singer. Over the three artists hovers the menace of authority, seemingly kind but suffocating to their creativity, and the dark secret at the heart of the Ruin Song.
With the help of a cheerful waif called Matt and his little dog, Kira at last finds the way to the plant that will allow her to create the missing color--blue--and, symbolically, to find the courage to shape the future by following her art wherever it may lead. With astonishing originality, Lowry has again created a vivid and unforgettable setting for this thrilling story that raises profound questions about the mystery of art, the importance of memory, and the centrality of love.
Helpful Score: 1
This is Book 2 of The Giver Quartet.
In this book, Lowry completely shifts gears and takes the reader to another post-apocalyptic community with a brand new set of characters.
I did not find this book as overtly disturbing as The Giver, but I did feel that same sense of paranoia, danger, and urgency hiding throughout the plot. In this book, Lowry goes more into detail about special gifts that some of the people in this world possess, and it makes me wonder where that will lead and how it will factor in to the overarching story.
The smallest of connections are made between this book and The Giver, but the reader is given no more than an off-hand remark in one or two sentences and must once again draw their own conclusions.
This book was good. It was not quite on par with The Giver but it was still important. As I read, I had the feeling that this was something of a bridge book, a necessary connection between what has happened (The Giver) and what is yet to come. Again, this is a book that manages to say a lot by saying very little. Lowry continues to impress me with her style, her content, and her ability to challenge me as I am forced to think more about what it is that I am reading. I am eagerly looking forward to the next installment.
In this book, Lowry completely shifts gears and takes the reader to another post-apocalyptic community with a brand new set of characters.
I did not find this book as overtly disturbing as The Giver, but I did feel that same sense of paranoia, danger, and urgency hiding throughout the plot. In this book, Lowry goes more into detail about special gifts that some of the people in this world possess, and it makes me wonder where that will lead and how it will factor in to the overarching story.
The smallest of connections are made between this book and The Giver, but the reader is given no more than an off-hand remark in one or two sentences and must once again draw their own conclusions.
This book was good. It was not quite on par with The Giver but it was still important. As I read, I had the feeling that this was something of a bridge book, a necessary connection between what has happened (The Giver) and what is yet to come. Again, this is a book that manages to say a lot by saying very little. Lowry continues to impress me with her style, her content, and her ability to challenge me as I am forced to think more about what it is that I am reading. I am eagerly looking forward to the next installment.
