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This book came out in 1993, the year after I left the classroom. Were I still teaching, I would use it in a heartbeat and not just because it won the prestigious Newberry Award for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American Literature for Children. The Giver is beautifully written, a compelling read, and one that I know kids would love talking about. There are so many themes ripe for discussion in this book. And it seems even more relevant in 2025 than when it was first published.

Because ... just as the Elders in the community portrayed in The Giver have created a society where nothing is unexpected, there is no pain, no history, no dissonance, individuals and coordinated groups today are trying to impose some of those same "values" on us, on our children. Efforts to white wash dark times in our history by rewriting history books and banning books that in any way challenge the status quo, a benign view of the world and ourselves in it, have rapidly gained progress toward the kind of world depicted by Lowry. We might discuss ways our current society is like/unlike the one depicted in the book.

I know students would identify with the protagonist, Jonas, who strives to follow all the rules until love forces him to break all of them. I know they would wonder about the web of lies the adults have woven to keep the status quo unchallenged. Lies they no longer recognize as such. Just as they can no longer see colors, they can no longer see true right and wrong. We might discuss what a cult is and how it is that people might lose connection to facts and feelings.

I decided to read The Giver right now because it was recently featured on Velshi's Banned Books Club. After I finished, I found myself puzzled as to why anyone would want to ban The Giver, so I Googled it. I found out "The Giver is sometimes banned or challenged because it contains themes considered too mature for young readers, including graphic depictions of violence, particularly related to infanticide (killing of babies with disabilities), suicide, and sexually suggestive content, which some find inappropriate for the age group it is often assigned to."

It's most often assigned to 6th - 8th grade and seems entirely appropriate to me for those grades. The sexuality is vaguely suggested but not explicit, and kids of that age are exposed to much more violence on television or in video games. They are aware of their own budding sexuality, the feelings that arise unbidden, and so can identify with Jonas. The violence is one scene describing a Civil War battlefield ... don't we want kids to know that war is horrible? Don't they already know from other media ... graphic visual media ... rather than simply words?

We might discuss what it would be like to be assigned your life's work at age 12. We might discuss the friendship between Jonas and The Giver and whether or not we have any "givers" in our own lives and what their value might be to ourselves and our society. We might discuss "the Hero's Journey" as a literary/mythological theme and how Jonas exemplified it in his courageous trek across vast expanses of land to find freedom in the end. And then compare Jonas to other heroic characters. And find the heroic in our own lives.

The richness of this book makes it a superb choice for middle school kids. Yes, it's disturbing to think of infanticide ... but fairy tales are disturbing, the Bible is disturbing. Kids will survive and be the better for living in a society that helps them confront the darker aspects of life rather than shielding them from anything that might be remotely upsetting. I'm reminded of Lukianoff and Haidt's The Coddling of the American Mind. It doesn't make us stronger or more resilient to be wrapped in cotton wadding. The Giver manages darkness appropriately for middle school students and would give them an enormous gift of things to ponder in life. It's a gift that would keep on giving for many years ahead.