Lois Lowry
Read Lois Lowry’s biography and place the following words at their corresponding place in
the text.
ambiguous
degree
imagination
settings
caring
fiction
memory
shaggy
conflict
four
odyssey
style
connections
hometown
past
vital
1.
5.
9.
13.
2.
6.
10.
14.
3.
7.
11.
15.
4.
8.
12.
16.
Lois Lowry was the middle child of three. She was a solitary child who lived in the world of books
and her own vivid __1__.
Because her father was a career military officer - an Army dentist – she lived all over the world.
She was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in her
mother’s __2__: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when she was eleven. High
school was back in New York City, but by the time she went to college (Brown University in
Rhode Island), her family was living in Washington, D.C.
When she married a Naval officer, at nineteen, she continued the __3__ that military life
required: California; Connecticut (a daughter born there); Florida (a son); South Carolina; finally
Cambridge, Massachusetts, when her husband entered Harvard Law School (another daughter;
another son) and then to Maine - by now with __4__ children under the age of five in tow.
Her children grew up in Maine. So did she. She returned to college at the University of Southern
Maine, got her __5__, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally.
Her marriage ended in 1977, when she was forty. Today she’s back in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
living and writing in a house dominated by a very __6__ Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. Most
mornings she can be found seated at her computer and at work by eight o'clock. A brief lunch
break and she's back at it again until mid-afternoon, at least. She writes novels, short stories
and essays, mostly for young people, but she also writes because it's so much a part of her that
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she turns to it constantly, both personally and professionally. Her books have varied in content
and __7__. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the
importance of human __8__.
Her older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a
warplane tore away a piece of her world. But it left her, too, with a wish to honour him by joining
the many others trying to find a way to end __9__ on this very fragile earth.
For a change of scenery she spends time in Maine, where she has an old (it was built in 1768!)
farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine she gardens, feeds birds, entertains friends, and reads.
She is an accomplished photographer (the cover of The Giver is her own work) and she has an
artist's eye for composition. She sometimes compares the role of writer to that of
photographer saying that the writer carefully chooses the best lens and __10__ for her work,
deciding which things to focus on and which to blur.
The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against
the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than
her earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the __11__ need of people to be
aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its
environment.
The Giver is her most ambitious work to date and her acceptance speech for the Newbery
Award it received tells of the many rivers of experience and inspiration that led her to write it.
One of those rivers of inspiration came from her father who was, at that time, in a nursing home
having lost most of his long-term __12__. She realized one day while visiting her father that,
without memory, there is no pain and began to imagine a society in which the __13__ was
deliberately forgotten. The flaws in that supposedly ideal society show the need for personal
and societal memory and for making connections with the past and with each other. The ending
of The Giver, which is deliberately __14__, has been the subject of much discussion by readers.
All that Lois will say about it is that there will never be a sequel and that she is hopeful about its
ending. With its varied interpretations, the book is a wonderful one for discussion groups for
middle school students. The Giver is a skillful and fascinating work of __15__ which challenges
the reader to re-examine his or her own values and the directions current societies seem to be
taking. Recurrent themes for Lois Lowry seem to be saying goodbye, the importance of making
connections with others and finding a place where we belong. The Giver deals with all of these
and more.
She is a grandmother now. For her own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation –
she tries, through writing, to convey her passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this
planet and that our future depends upon our __16__ more, and doing more, for one another.
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Pre-Reading Activities
A SURVEY – Answer TRUE or FALSE to these statements.
________ 1. An ideal community would not have any hunger or starvation.
________ 2. An ideal community would not have any jealousy or competition.
________ 3. An ideal community would not have any unemployment.
________ 4. All children should have equal possessions and privileges at certain age, regardless of
the status of their families.
________ 5. Families are much closer when they share their feelings.
________ 6. Life would be better and easier if we did not carry bad memories in our heads.
________ 7. Overpopulation is such a problem that families should not be allowed to have more than
two children.
________ 8. There is no need to learn about world history.
________ 9. There is no real need to learn about one’s own family’s history.
_______ 10. One’s job or occupation in life should be a careful match of one’s interests, talents, and
skills.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What is a utopian society?________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Choices I’m allowed to make
Choices I’m not allowed to make because
of family rules or legal restrictions
How would you feel if all decisions were made for you?
2. Describe your feelings about change? How do you feel when everything stays the
same?_______________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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Reading Activities
Vocabulary - Chapters 1 to 5
a) obvious, noticeable
f) troubled in mind
b) misbehavior, sin
g) confused
c) anxious, worried
h) sorrow, guilt
d) punishment
i) laughed (chuckled + snorted)
e) unwillingly, halfheartedly
j) plain, ordinary
Choose the appropriate definition of the underlined words from the above list.
Example
1. “I’m feeling apprehensive,” Jonas confessed, glad that the appropriate word had finally
come to him. p.4
Circle one: adjective verb noun adverb
Definition: c) anxious,worried
2. Now thinking about the feeling of fear as he pedaled home along the river path, he
remembered that moment of palpable, stomach-sinking terror when the aircraft had streaked
above. p.3
Circle one: adjective verb noun adverb
Definition:_________________________________________________________________
3. The rules say that if there is a third transgression, he simply has to be released. p.9
Circle one: adjective verb noun adverb
Definition:_________________________________________________________________
4. Jonas thought again about that incident. He was still bewildered by it. p.23
Circle one: adjective verb noun adverb
Definition:_________________________________________________________________
5. Lily, he decided, would have to learn that soon, or she would be called in for
chastisement because of her insensitive chatter. p.20
Circle one: adjective verb noun adverb
Definition:_________________________________________________________________
6. …Larissa chortled with laughter. p.33
Circle one: adjective verb noun adverb
Definition:_________________________________________________________________
7. I guess I just got distraught, watching them. p.4
Circle one: adjective verb noun adverb
Definition:_________________________________________________________________
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8. The same nondescript shade, about the same shade as his own tunic. p. 24
Circle one: adjective verb noun adverb
Definition:_________________________________________________________________
9. “Well, no, I guess not,” Lily acknowledged reluctantly. p.22
Circle one: adjective verb noun adverb
Definition:_________________________________________________________________
10. No one had mentioned it, not even his parents, because the public announcement had
been sufficient to produce the appropriate remorse. p.23
Circle one: adjective verb noun adverb
Definition:_________________________________________________________________
Chapter 1
1. Who is the protagonist of The Giver?___________________________________________
2. Who is Asher? ____________________________________________________________
3. What is meant by “the elevens”, “the sevens”, etc..? _______________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
4. What does it mean to be “released”? ___________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
5. Describe the jobs Jonas’ mother and father have. _________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 2
1. What is the “Ceremony of 12”? _______________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
2. What happens when children become ones? Nines? ______________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
3. Who is the receiver and how are rules changed? (p.14) ____________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
4. Who is Gabriel and why is Jonas’ father worried about him (ch.1)? ___________________
__________________________________________________________________________
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