Messenger by Lois Lowry (The Giver Trilogy, Book 3)

Books Completed: 78
Completion Date: March, 2009
Pages: 176
Publication Date: January 24, 2006

Reason for Reading: Finish off the trilogy. The Series Challenge Season 3.

For the past six years, Matty has lived in Village and flourished under the guidance of Seer, a blind man, known for his special sight. Village was a place that welcomed newcomers, but something sinister has seeped into Village and the people have voted to close it to outsiders. Matty has been invaluable as a messenger. Now he must make one last journey through the treacherous forest with his only weapon, a power he unexpectedly discovers within himself.

I have decided that in the interest of catching up on the pending reviews that are piling up, I am going to borrow Dewey's review format. I tend to ramble in my own, and that is not conductive to my catch-up plan! The fact that I am having a really hard time reading the last few days is good in the sense that I am not behind even further!

Title and author of book: The Messenger by Lois Lowry

Fiction or non-fiction? Genre? Young Adult Fiction.

What led you to pick up this book? I had read the first two and I was determined that I would finish some trilogies/series this year, so this was my first one!

Summarize the plot, but don’t give away the ending! See above...

What did you like most about the book? The characters. Lowry is very good at writing characters that you can connect with and get to know during the course of the novel. You start to feel for them and appreciate what they are going through.

What did you like least? The ending. Well, the whole book. I couldn't really seem to get into it. I am starting to think that novels of this sort are not really my thing...

Have you read any other books by this author? What did you think of those books? I have read The Giver, Gathering Blue, and most recently, Gossamer by her. I loved Gossamer. I thought it was a great little book! The Giver was good, too, but I was just not a big fan of the other two books in the trilogy!

What did you think of the main character? I did really like the main character. Like I said above, Lowry writes good characters. He was introduced in the previous book, so it was nice to see further development. Plus, characters from the other two books make appearances which was nice.

What about the ending? I thought it was too abrupt. I'll leave it at that.

Gossamer by Lois Lowry

Reason for Reading: Once Upon a Time III, Dewey Reading Challenge

Where do dreams come from? What stealthy nighttime messengers are the guardians of our most deeply hidden hopes and our half-forgotten fears? Drawing on her rich imagination, two-time Newbery winner Lois Lowry confronts these questions and explores the conflicts between the gentle bits and pieces of the past that come to life in dream, and the darker horrors that find their form in nightmare. In a haunting story that tiptoes between reality and imagination, two people—a lonely, sensitive woman and a damaged, angry boy—face their own histories and discover what they can be to one another, renewed by the strength that comes from a tiny, caring creature they will never see.

Gossamer is perfect for readers not quite ready for Lois Lowry's Newbery-Award winner The Giver and also for readers interested in dreams, nightmares, spirits and the dream world.

Dear Dewey,

Before I even talk about your review, I am going to have my moment. I have read three Lowry books during my blogging days (not counting this one), and while I really liked The Giver, I was not as impressed with it as other people. The two sequels just disappointed me. I think, though, I am just first and foremost a fantasy lover and books about the end of the world are not my thing. I like hopeful books with lots of adventure. Lowry's trilogy is a bit depressing. That's not to say that I didn't like it, it was just not my first choice in young adult literature. Then, I read this book! I loved it! It was just a cute, fast story, but this is my favourite Lowry book now. I am so mad at myself for not reading it sooner!

I really liked how you summed up this review. The book is about dream-givers and is told from the point-of-view of Littlest, who is a dream-giver in training. The dream-givers touch objects and get memories from them to pass on as dreams to the humans. Like you, I found myself browsing the objects in my house and wondering what memories would be taken from them if this was a possibility. It was fun to look at things I have owned forever in this light. It doesn't have to be big, either. Littlest found memories in simple objects like a button a sweater. We touch and experience so many things everyday that there are so many things that can influence our dreams! Oh, and I couldn't be as patient with John as the unnamed woman either, but children are not exactly my strong-point! Especially in books.

This was just a sweet, little treasure of a book. I thought it was well-written and it is about an aspect of the fantasy world that doesn't get a lot of book time! I am really glad that we both read this book.

Until next time...

To read Dewey's review of this book, click here.

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry (The Giver Trilogy, Book 2)

Books Completed: 34
Completion Date: February, 2009
Pages: 224
Publication Date: September 10, 2002

Reason for Reading: Next book in the trilogy. Sci-Fi Experience.

Kira, an orphan with a twisted leg, lives in a world where the weak are cast aside. She fears for her future until she is spared by the all-powerful Council of Guardians. Kira is a gifted weaver and is given a task that no other community member can do. While her talent keeps her alive and brings certain privileges, Kira soon realizes she is surrounded by many mysteries and secrets. No one must know of her plans to uncover the truth about her world and see what places exist beyond.

I read The Giver, the first book in this trilogy, a while ago now. I had planned to read the rest of the books in the trilogy, but I just never got around to it! It probably would have been a good idea to go just a bit faster, though, because the last book in this trilogy combines characters from this book and from the first one, so I am not sure how well I am going to remember the story by that point. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of the third one soon.

This is the second book that I have read recently that takes place after the world as we know it has been destroyed. Lowry does not picture the same type of world as Westerfeld, though. She pictures a world where instead of moving forward with technology, they have actually moved backwards. They both have the idea of perfection as a central theme, though. Westerfeld had everyone born and then made perfect, though. Lowry writes of a world where you are 'sent to the Field' if you are not born perfect. Both societies have ideals about what people are supposed to be like, though. Westerfeld's characters aspire to be beautiful, while Kira is lucky to be alive. She was born with a twisted leg, so she normally would have been sent away to die right from the beginning, but her mother fought for her life.

Like Tally from Westerfeld's book, Kira believes that this is the way that life is supposed to be. She does what she is told, and they keep her alive. She wouldn't dare risk attention being brough to herself because then her mother's wishes might not be carried out. Thankfully for her, though, she is an excellent seamstress. This is something that the powers that be know about and have use of, so Kira finds her life suddenly very different. Things are not always what they seem, though. When you are given the oppurtunity to see the whole picture, you can easily find yourself rethinking how things are. Tally and Kira thought that they knew how things were 'supposed' to be, but they quickly learn that they have been living their life largely in the dark.

Lowry is a wonderful author that I really have to read more books by! I hope the comparision between Lowry and Westerfeld wasn't a problem. I just had the other book fresh in my head, so I thought I would draw on it! I also really need to read more science-fiction.

The Giver - Lois Lowry (January/06)

Following Harry Potter I read another novel intended for a younger audience, but I did not find this book young. It is one of those books that will mean different things to the different ages that read it, in my opinion. The older readers will see something that the younger reader missed.

This novel is quite simply about a utopian society. Not that utopia is a simple concept, to many it is actually believed to be an impossible concept. This is a world where everyone is told what their point to the society is and what they should do to fit in to the grand scheme of things. A group of Elders watch the children and decide what jobs they should have, food is made by a group of people for the whole community, you receive certain things when you reach particular ages, and so on. It is an entirely planned society, and appears perfect in every way. You are given the job that best suits you, your mate is chosen to make up for your weaknesses while your strengths make up for theirs, and you have to wait and be selected to have a child because even that is done by a group of people for the masses. Marriage in this community is not a coming together of loved ones, it is a partnership.

The main character in the novel, Jonah, is t the age where he is chosen to receive his job placement and for the first part of the book is very anxious to learn what that position is. When the time comes that he is awarded his position, it comes with it a lot of new avenues to be explored. For starters, what may look like a perfect society from the outside is not as perfect from the inside. He also learns that not too long ago, the people that lived in this community were not run as perfectly as they are now. They used to have free-will. With this knowledge comes the adventure of the novel, which I will leave for the readers.

4/5