The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver by Lois Lowry a children’s SF for 8-12 year olds written in 1993 is part of a loose set trilogy set in the same imagined world but not necessarily with the same characters. It deals with a world where your life is one of conformity and happiness. The short novel honestly faces why a society such as this would arise with its benefits and essential failure explored. The core of that failure is that…grief is the price you pay for love. Without sadness, can love and laughter really exist?

We discover a community of unlimited happiness and good manners set in a green and pleasant paradise of high but largely hidden technology. In this world, only 50 children per community are born from genetically approved placements in birth mothers. Regulations define your clothes, toys and your role in society from your first year. From eight you have to volunteer for a range of community duties so that your life long occupation from twelve can start. We join Jonas as the ceremony for 12’s is near for the allotment of his calling. Much to his and the communities shock he is not allotted a job but is selected to be the Receiver. In learning what this is, he discovers the hidden pain and dark side of unlimited happiness. This sets off a chain of events as Jonas discovers what being released really means. He faces what growing up means, and consequences whose meaning you have to decide.

The book has over 3000 ratings on Amazon.com alone so we are talking popular and critical success (it won the Newbury Medal- the USA children’s literature award). Even so, it is banned in several USA State’s School and Library systems because of the dark emotional issues dealt with. Surprisingly doesn’t to have attracted the same attention in the UK. If you or your children have not read it then you have missed a classic. But if you have read it then you know why it’s enjoyable and highly recommended!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows moments ago. My son of 16 is still reading his downstairs and journey we began 10 years ago will soon end. In the early days I read the chapters aloud and acted out the characters, now we read in separate rooms but check out where each is to saviour what each other experienced.

As Harry Potter gradually has to learn over the books and especially in this one that the dividing line between evil and good is empathy and choice, then my son has learned that fathers are flawed and fallible. And I that Son's walk their own path.

In Hogwarts we have the prefect plot device of showing how age enables wider choices and deeper struggles and it’s apt that the school is not central to the story this time reflecting that Harry has to grapple with adult life. The image of the school in the book has played a powerful part in my life as my son choose to go to a public school founded in the 16th century based in the country and with its own train station where the students wear cloaks and breeches and are divided into competing houses. As Harry as struggled to fit so my son has over the years; as Harry’s final struggle succeeds but in ways you don’t expect so my son has matured and succeeded in ways I didn’t expect.

So what will you find in this last book? Expect that the story and the consequences are darker. Discover that loose ends from the various stories are tied up. And that all that glitters is not gold. The pace is good and the need to give us information may slow the plot up at times but it’s not a major problem. And room for sequels? Not for the Harry Potter generation.

If you love the books and the way it has engaged children in their millions to read then you won’t be disappointed. I have yet to see an author who can draw 250,000 children, adults and families out on a cold and rainy evening in the UK. My son wanted to take part in the last Pottermaina so we went and in a most un-English way chatted to good nature strangers in the crowds. And had more conversation and fun with my son then in years- adolescent boy…you know what I mean. This for me answers those critics who carp from the Christian right or the Literary elite. Its fun and so its not gourmet writing, what’s wrong with writing that’s a good pizza with friends. It might not change your life but it’s what makes life worth living.