My seventh grade son has been assigned the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry – for his summer reading. He actually read it last summer, when his brother was assigned the same book. There is hardly a book in this house those two boys haven’t read, at least once! (He is going to read it again, though. He will, after all, be tested on it.) I have to admit that last summer, I never even looked the book up to see what it was about. What a neglectful Mama Bookworm! I did try to get some answers out of my son about the book, but, all that they told me was, “It’s weird.” That wasn’t a whole lot of help. 
It turns out that it is what Wikipedia calls soft science fiction. I don’t think I’ve ever heard science fiction called ‘soft’ before, but, I think I can picture what they must mean by it. You can see the Wikipedia entry for it here: The Giver – on Wikipedia. Oh, and Amazon has a much neater cover on their copy of the book than ours. You can see it here: The Giver – on Amazon.
The story actually reminds me of several stories very similar. It is about a young boy who is growing up in a idealistic, Utopian society that has been stripped of color (literally) and emotions, and even what they call “stirrings” – emotional feelings for another of the opposite sex. Because in this ‘perfect society’ – your mate is chosen for you and they don’t want anyone to be upset with their choice of mate. It looks to be quite an interesting story about the price that is paid for everyone to live in a completely ordered and pain-free society. I think I might read this one when he’s done with it.
GO READ A BOOK!
