Required Reading

Somewhere in my K-8 education, the Giver was a book that only half the class read, and I was in the other half. When the book popped up in Stampadoodle's community library, I picked it up and finished it in a couple lunch breaks' time. The story is about a dystopian society far off in our future, where everyone is the same. They have the same schedules, the same conversations, the same clothes and houses. When they turn twelve, they get sorted into different career paths by community elders. SPOILER ALERT: This is a miserable way to live, but the protagonist (Jonas) doesn't know it until he is chosen to be the "receiver," and learn all the memories, feelings, and wisdom that the giver departs to him. Whuta page-turner.