ANTICIPATION

GUIDE
Read the following statements and indicate your agreement/disagreement on the
response sheet. Discuss the statements with your group members. Then, choose
one statement you feel strongly about, and explain your opinion.
1. If you were to be lost in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are
forever.
2. For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind
him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music
too. But perhaps, it was only an echo.
3. I feel sorry for anyone who is in a place where he feels strange and stupid.

4. Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous
time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away
with a difference. We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others.
5. ...how could you describe a hill and snow to someone who had never felt height or wind or that
feathery, magical cold?
6. Even trained for years as they all had been in the precision of language, what words could you use
which would give another the experience of sunshine?
7. He knew that there was no quick comfort for emotions like those. They were deeper and they did
not need to be told. They were felt.
8. His mind reeled. Now, empowered to ask questions of utmost rudeness-and promised answers-he
could, conceivably (though it was almost unimaginable), ask someone, some adult, his father
perhaps: 'Do you lie?' But he would have no way of knowing if the answer he received was true.
 CHARACTERIZATION
Read the following excerpts in order to make inferences
about the characters before reading the novel.

JONAS
As the main protagonist, he is a curious child about to
turn twelve years old who wants to learn. Despite his
age in The Giver, Jonas has deep empathy for others,
a trait which is frowned upon by the conformist society
in which he lives. One trait that instantly marks him as
different is his eyes. He is also a dynamic character
because he has changed a lot throughout the book.

What does the excerpt reveal about each character?

Discuss the excerpt with your group members, and then
explain what it reveals using textual evidence from the
excerpts.
 MEET THE
AUTHOR
Use the following links to learn about the author of the
book, LOIS LOWRY.
Then, in the recording sheet, write a short summary of the
life of the author.

Life: https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Lois-Lowry/312239

Biography: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/g/the-giver/lois-lowry-
biography

Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlz2p776JnE

Longer video of her life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YsmRZ2931E