Module 8: Son

Book Summary: This book is a continuation of The Giver.  A young woman who was used to produce a child, and was then supposed to forget all about him, does not follow the conventional ways of the society that she came from.  She goes against everything that she knows and was taught to be right, in order to find her son.

APA Reference of Book: Lowry, L. (2012). Son. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Impressions: I love the way that the author of these books has a way with words.   The Giver, a book that preceded this one in the series, is one of my all time favorites and I have wanted to read this one for a long time.  Glad I finally did.  This book is written very similar to The Giver.   The author provoked deep though as to why we are here and what is it that we do with our time here.  How do we live our lives?  What if society told us to live our lives differently?  What if we never knew things existed, like color?  This was a great ending to the series of the books.  Now, I just need to read the two in between.

Professional Review: Fans of The Giver (1993) and their legion will find themselves immediately pulled back into the sterile, ordered world where conformity is the only virtue. The focus here is on 14-year-old Claire, and when readers first see her, she is strapped onto a table, masked, about to give birth. As a Birthmother, Claire's job is finished once her baby is born, until the next pregnancy. But unusual circumstances, including a cesarean, get Claire moved from the birthing center to the fish hatchery, and someone forgets to give Claire the pills everyone in the community takes the ones that suppress feelings and individuality. Without that wall, Claire begins to long for her son and finds opportunities to see him. Slowly, readers of the previous titles in the quartet will come to understand that Claire's baby is not unfamiliar to them. When the boy disappears, Claire decides, against all odds, that she must find him. That brings her to a seaside community where she strengthens body, mind, and spirit to continue her search. One of The Giver's strengths was the unvarnished writing style that reflected the book's ordered community. Lowry captures that same feeling again and turns it inside out as Claire moves through two more distinct settings, both haunting in their own right. Though her time at the seaside village may seem long to some readers (and it is more than 10 years), the vividness of the descriptions from the hardness of the rock to the roiling of the water makes up for the length. Lowry is one of those rare writers who can craft stories as meaningful as they are enticing. Once again she provides plenty of weighty matters for readers to think about: What is important in life? What are you willing to trade for your desires? And the conflict that has been going on since stories began: Who is able to conquer evil? Don't miss our feature, Another Look at Lois Lowry's The Giver Quartet.

Cooper, I. (2012). Son. (Book Review). Booklist, 108(19/20), 78.

Library Uses: I would ask my students to make a list of the things that are most important to them in life.  I would have them hold on to that list and refer to it throughout the year, and try to remember that when things get tough for them, they need to remember what's most important to them.