The Giver

Lowry, L. (1993). The giver . Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 

The Giver by Lois Lowry is a Most Challenged Book according to Bookspot.com

A Newbery Medal Book

Jonas lives in an extremely structured society that controls citizen's everyday life activities. When someone makes a mistake or breaks a rule, he/she suffers consequences and can even be released (expelled) from the community. Jonas lives with his parents and a younger sister, his father is a nurturer, someone who takes care of babies. When Jonas turns 12, he will go through a ceremony that will decide his future job. Jonas' father brings home a baby that has been struggling in the nurturing center, we learn in this section that all the children in this society are born to "Birthmothers" in a center and after 1 year they are assigned a father and a mother. When Jonas is volunteering at the "House of the Old," he listens to an elderly woman relate a friend's release ceremony in which this friend's life was celebrated and at the end, he walked through a door never to be seen again, nobody really knows what happened to this old man. During the ceremony, each child that turns twelve is given a career assignment, the elders have chosen Jonas to be "Receiver of Memory," a job in which Jonas will be given memories of the past and will have the ability to feel pain and "see beyond." Jonas feels proud of this assignment.

At his training, Jonas realizes that some of the elders that rule his community do things differently that what the common people are allowed to and he begins to wonder what kinds of other privileges those leaders have that the rest of the people don't. Jonas experiences new things that the world had in the past and his community does not have any access to including feeling snow, exhilaration, sunshine, pain and more; the current Receiver explains to Jonas that  all the feelings are from a time before they went to "sameness."
As his training progresses, Jonas sees colors, he questions the Giver why the rest of the people don't have this ability and the explanation turns out to be that some things had to be left out in order for their community to prosper. Jonas' job, when he is fully trained, will be to impart his wisdom and help the community leaders make decisions, the memories will help Jonas advise the community for or against certain issues. The more Jonas learns, the more he questions the Giver until he begins helping at home with Gabriel the baby that more likely be release because he doesn't sleep through the night. One night, while Jonas is taking care of Gabriel, he accidentally transmits a happy memory to the baby and the baby finally sleeps through the night! On one occasion, the Giver transmits his favorite memory to Jonas: a family opening presents on a Christmas day, Jonas discovers the feeling of love and at that point Jonas makes a big change in his life, he will no longer take the pill that prevents him from feeling on a regular basis. When Jonas watches the release of a newborn identical twin, he realizes that the baby was injected and died, the memories gave Jonas the discernment to understand that a release means that the community is practicing euthanasia on individuals that either have a defect or are weak. Jonas decides to escape the community, with the help of the Giver and with baby Gabriel because when he was sent back to the Nurturing center, Gabe had cried all night and was to be released. Jonas escapes and finds a house after having spent sometime trying to survive in the wilderness. This house seemed to be part of the memories that he received and Jonas knew that he had found a home.

In this extraordinary novel, Lowry touches various topics such as life without the ability to make choices, no feelings and people are told what to do pretty much every moment of their lives. Jonas breaks many rules once he begins his training as "the Receiver" and begins questioning life in this community, in the end Jonas with a new gained moral standard, decides to save a baby from a certain death and escapes to uncertainty, showing the readers that hope, compassion and love are important parts our lives as human beings. I loved reading this book and the next two books that follow such a wonderful novel: Gathering Blue and The Messenger.

Atherton: The House of Power

Carman, P. (2007). Atherton: the house of power. New York: Little, Brown. 

Atherton: The House of Power by Patrick Carman is a 2008 Bluebonnet Award book.

Exposition:

In the planet Atherton, an 11 year old boy, Edgar, works in the fig groves. Edgar is constantly getting in trouble and Mr. Ratikan, the grove manager, punished him by taking away the little food that he is given after a day of hard work. Edgar is very agile despite the lack of food, his hobby is to climb up the Tabletop cliffs until one day he discovers a book.

Conflict:

Atherton is a three-level planet, the Highlands (top of the planet) is where the ruler lives along with the "upper class" citizens, these people are literate and keep the water source under a strict control. Tabletop (middle section) is where most of the people live in three sections called villages the Grove, the Village of Sheep, and the Village of Rabbits. These people work all day and have to pay dues to the Highlands with either their crop of their meat. The Flatlands is where all the waste goes and nobody has ever been there.

Rising Action:

Edgar buries the book: one of the many rules dictates that if anyone finds a book, they must turn it in to the Highlands without looking inside it. While Edgar is frustrated about the fact that he can't read the book, he also remembers a brief memory from the past where another person, perhaps his father told him that something "would come to him." Edgar is tormented by this memory and finally decides to climb to the Highlands (which is forbidden) to find someone that could read the book to him. The night that Edgar climbs all the way to the Highlands, he meets Samuel, a lonely boy that spends his time reading books. The boys make a pact and Edgar returns to the Highlands to hear Samuel read the book to him. In the mean time there are tremors across Tabletop and the Highlands, at the beginning they are barely noticeable but the tremors are stronger as time goes by. As Edgar is climbing again, he notices that the cliff is somewhat shorter and begins wondering what is happening. Samuel and Edgar discover that the Highlands are sinking as they read the mysterious journal. Then Samuel hides Edgar under his bed and tucks in the last page of the book in Edgar's pocket when Sir Emerik comes to his house and realizes that he is reading a book that no one had ever seen before. Sir Emerik takes Samuel to the fortress to let Lord Phineus ( the tyrant ruler of Atherton) know about the book. Lord Phineus' cruel manner frightens Samuel revealing the secret of the book to the men. Edgar goes back to Tabletop, visits the Village of Rabbits where he has a terrible encounter with Sir Emerik in which Edgar burns part of Emerik's hair. Emerik lies to Edgar and sends him to the Flatlands where he believes that Edgar will perish.

Climax:

All the people of Atherton realize that the Highlands are sinking and begin to prepare for what will happen afterwards. When the Highlands sink, there are battles between the Tabletop and Highlands people, Lord Phineus returns to his stronghold to protect himself and to stop the water flow to Tabletop. Edgar goes to the Flatlands and finds that two men live there: Vincent and Dr. Kincaid. Dr. Kincaid reveals to Edgar that he was the man from that early childhood memory and that the time has come, they must go back to Tabletop to warn the others about Tabletop's sinking as well. The real danger of Tabletop being at the same level as the Flatlands is the Cleaners, horrible creatures that eat anything and everything. Ever level is sinking, Atherton is changing and so is its people, alliances are being made between different groups of people, the people of Atherton have one purpose: to survive.

Falling Action:

When things calm down, Samuel is looking for Edgar and finds Isabel, Edgar's friend they both go to the fortress to find the water source and reopen it.

Edgar, Vincent, and Dr. Kincaid are also going to Atherton's stronghold to discover the truth.

Lord Phineus has gone mad when most of the Highlanders deserted him and goes to the water source to punish and gain control of the people again

Resolution:

The main characters are about to begin a dangerous journey that will continue on the next book: Atherton: Rivers of Fire.

Personal Reaction:

I read this book last summer...I just could not put it down! I'm happy to report that I went back to work and read the book with my GT class and they loved it!! They really got into it and even some of the reluctant readers were engaged and asking questions about the book. At the end, the class begged me to read the second book with them.... and we did! The book also contains quotes from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, connecting two of the characters, Dr. Kincaid and Dr. Harding, throughout the story. The characters and themes in this book are well developed, Patrick Carman uses suspense and understatement that keep the reader wanting to read more of the story. The unexpected surprises that the characters encounter add depth to the story line and take the reader on a journey in which s/he can vividly imagine the characters' tribulations, joys, sufferings, etc.

I highly recommend this book to upper level elementary students o Jr. High students.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Collins, S. (2008) The hunger games. New York: Scholastic Press.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a Young Adult Science Fiction book published in 2008 by Scholastic.

Exposition: Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl, lives in Panem, previously North America, she and her friend Gale hunt and gather food in the outside woods of District 12 for their families' survival. During the reaping, Katniss' sister is chosen for the Hunger Games, a contest in which only one person - a tribute - will survive; Katniss immediately volunteers to save her beloved sister.                                                                Conflict: Katniss has to compete against 22 other tributes from other districts and Peeta Mellark from her own district. During their time together in training, Peeta and Katniss begin a relationship in which she is not sure what to think and feel for him.                                                             Rising Action: Katniss scores highest of all tributes during a test in front of the Gamemakers. The games begin and Katniss feels betrayed when she realizes that Peeta has joined a group of mean tributes that are hunting her.                                                                                                                            Climax: After a change of rules in the Games, Peeta and Katniss have joined in an effort to survive together, they become finalists when Caesar Flickerman, a reporter, announces that only one tribute will complete the Games. Peeta draws his knife and Katniss prepares an arrow, Katniss tells Peeta that they will go together to the end and gets poisonous berries from a bag. The Gamemakers decide to allow both of them to be victors.                                                                                                                           Falling Action: Peeta and Katniss are sent to a recovery area separately in which they spend time healing and waiting for the final interview before going back home. When the time for the inteview comes, Haymitch tells Katniss that she must continue pretending to love Peeta since she is in trouble for defying the Capitol with the poisonous berries.                                                                                                                               Resolution: Peeta believes that Katniss faked her love for him during the Games and tells her that he will participate in the final welcome back in District 12 but that he will not continue with the relationship. Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch are back home and Katniss wishes that she could hold Peeta's hand a little longer.

The Hunger Games is a books that provides the reader with suspense, understatement and unexpected insights among other literary elements. In many sections of the plot, understatement allows the readers to participate in the story, the facts and unspoken feelings are part of this experience in which the reader can conclude what the characters are feeling and make connections to their own personal experiences. The unexpected insights, small surprises, make the reader want more of the story, with this element, the story becomes meaningful to the reader.