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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

In Jonas' world, there is no pain, no conflict, no poverty or injustice. Everything, including the work you will do for the rest of your life, is carefully planned out and controlled. On his twelfth birthday, Jonas, along with all the other twelve-year-olds, is assigned his life role in the community by the Elders: apprentice to the Giver. It's not what he expected. He's never even heard of the Giver, but as he learns under this mysterious man who keeps the history, he begins to receive memories of another place and time, and his perceptions of his perfect world start to radically alter. This gripping tale, set in a not-so-distant-future time, raises provactive issues for discussion and has a dramatic ending that will leave readers clamoring to offer their own interpretations of events. (Ages 10-14)

CCBC Choices 1993 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 1993. Used with permission.

From Horn Book

July 1, 2019
Illustrated by P. Craig Russell, Galen Showman, Scott Hampton. This graphic version of the classic novel sticks closely to the source material, imagining Lowry's dystopian world in shades of gray and pale blue and adding color judiciously as Jonas's vision and understanding develop. Most spreads have plenty of text and small panels, making occasional quiet or large-paneled moments stand out as dramatic. Appended interviews add insights into the original and the adaptation.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Booklist

March 15, 2019
Grades 5-8 Color is a potent and central symbol in Lowry's modern classic. Its absence defines the sameness of Jonas' future world, in which everyone's life is neatly prescribed for them, right down to career and family. When Jonas is appointed the receiver of all humanity's memories, the appearance of color signifies his sense of discovery and, ultimately, his escape. Russell masterfully preserves the flow of story within this world of sameness through clean lines and compositional variation. But he, too, centralizes color. A limited palette of cool blues and somber grays strikes the emotionally sterile tone of Jonas' community, while humanity's memories come to the receiver in various hues: the gentle pink of a flower, the saturating red-orange of war. The relief and sometimes shock of these colors allow the power of the memories to reach readers in a way beyond mere sight, and thus the wonder of Lowry's story is made palpable in a startling new way. Includes illuminating interviews with Lowry and Russell on the adaptation process.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

From Publisher's Weekly

February 4, 2019
This graphic novel adaptation of Lowry's Newbery Medal—winning book hews close to the original text, retaining nearly all dialogue and narration in some form while substituting visual depiction for textual description. When Jonas turns 12, his perception of his seemingly utopian community begins to change. His selection as the next Receiver of Memory puts him in a position to see everything that is missing from the world he knows, as well as the hard truths that underlie his heretofore comfortable life. Russell (who also adapted The Graveyard Book) uses a simple, realistic cartoon style in a palette of blue pencil and ink wash that conveys the colorlessness of the world. The blue tone also mirrors the cool, passionless logic that drives the group's decisions, and the vast swathes of white space on the page hint at the essential emptiness of the community members' lives. Color is introduced slowly as Jonas begins to see it himself, helping the reader to identify with the startling changes that Jonas undergoes and creating a striking visual record of the heinous memories the boy receives-a mushroom cloud in a bright red panel, a battlefield and dying soldier in orange. An accessible version of the story for readers who have not yet encountered it. Ages 12—up.

From School Library Journal

Starred review from December 21, 2018

Gr 6 Up-Jonas lives in a colorless world where everyone is content and conformity is the key to serenity. At the age of 12, in a ceremony that determines Life Assignments for each citizen, he's chosen to be the community's "Receiver of Memories." He begins training with the Giver, an old man who is the sole guardian of the community's dark and concealed history. Jonas learns not only of sunshine, color, and love but also of pain, war, and death. Confronted with this reality, he faces difficult choices and discovers that the wisdom he now holds could determine the fate of his entire civilization. This striking retelling of the modern classic blends words and images to create a brilliant new representation of Lowry's dystopian conflict between the ideals of free will and security. The artwork, rendered in blue pencil and grayscale, perfectly depicts Jonas's stark, dysfunctional society, and the measured introduction and brief glimpses of color keep readers hopeful for a brighter future. The characters are distinct, and the action flows well, evoking the feeling of the original work. Dialogue is pulled directly from the source material and heightens the story line and Jonas's emotions. VERDICT This stunning work will introduce The Giver to a brand-new audience and will also delight longtime fans.-Kelley Gile, Cheshire Public Library, CT

Copyright 1 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Kirkus

Starred review from December 15, 2018
An eerie graphic version of the Newbery Award-winning classic.Russell (Murder Mysteries and Other Stories, 2015, etc.) pays no more attention than Lowry (Looking Back, 2016, etc.) did to continuity of detail or to justifying the counterintuitive notion that memories can be shed by transmitting them, but without taking significant liberties he skillfully captures the original's full, creeping horror. By depicting human figures with uncommonly precise realism, bearing calm, smiling demeanors and moving through tidy 1950s style settings, he establishes an almost trite air of utopian normality at the outset...then proceeds to undermine it with disquieting (to say the least) incidents capped by an explicit view of Jonas' serene dad "releasing" a supernumerary newborn by ramming a hypodermic into its head. He also neatly solves the color issue by composing his many small sequential scenes in blue pencil outlines with occasional pale washes--which makes Jonas' disturbing ability to "see beyond," from the red in an apple and a classmate's hair to the garish orange memories the Giver downloads to his brain, startlingly vivid and presages the polychrome wilderness into which he ultimately vanishes. Jonas and the rest of the cast are uniformly light-skinned and generically European of feature, but that is explicitly established as part of the hideous scenario.A first-rate visual reframing: sensitive, artistically brilliant, and as charged as its enigmatic predecessor with profound challenges to mind and heart. (interviews with the creators) (Graphic dystopian fantasy. 12-14)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Horn Book

January 1, 2012
Lowrys austere classic dystopian novel gets a curiously gifty treatment here, complete with bound-in red ribbon bookmark as well as glossy, too-literal, and stiff illustrations by Ibatoulline. Stick with the original and make up the pictures for yourself.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Publisher's Weekly

August 1, 1994
Winner of the 1994 Newbery Medal, this thought-provoking novel centers on a 12-year-old boy's gradual disillusionment with an outwardly utopian futuristic society; in a starred review, PW said, ``Lowry is once again in top form... unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.'' Ages 10-up.

From Publisher's Weekly

April 26, 1993
In the ``ideal'' world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children's adolescent sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community's Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are ``released''--to great celebration--at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also ``released,'' but with no fanfare. Lowry's development of this civilization is so deft that her readers, like the community's citizens, will be easily seduced by the chimera of this ordered, pain-free society. Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment--the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory--he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society's collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world. With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher's Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form--raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers. Ages 12-14.

From AudioFile Magazine

Praise and controversy precede this powerful story of a boy confronting the hidden truth about his futuristic society. Winner of the 1994 Newbery Award, Lowry's story sparks emotion and response from adults and children alike. This is a compelling prospect for family listening. Initially Rifkin's voice seems too regional to portray the characters of this utopian/dystopian world, but he convincingly conveys the anticipation of the coming-of-age ceremony of Jonas and his friends. As the meaning of Jonas' selection as "Receiver of Memory" unfolds, Rifkin's characterizations become more powerful. Although the story drives the presentation, Rifkin's juxtaposition of the young boy and the old Giver has tremendous effect. His voice for the Giver becomes increasingly weary and strained while Jonas' gains strength. Sharing this audiobook in a family or a classroom offers a valuable opportunity to respond to and discuss Lowry's moving novel. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine