A Couple Of Newbery Reviews

I've been falling behind on a couple of reviews, so here are two quick ones for two books that I loved reading for the Newbery challenge.

The first was Lois Lowry's, The Giver. The Giver is a dystopian novel about a brave new world that cherishes "sameness" There is no color in the world, there are no true feelings, there is no true love. Families are manufactured and every aspect of life is planned from the day you are born, in fact, from the moment you are conceived; seeing as each member of the community is assigned a job at the age of 12, and one of those jobs is "birth mother," a position that is looked poorly upon.

Jonas is assigned the title of Receiver of Memories, a title that is given only once every few generations. The job of the receiver of memories is to be the only person who remembers humanity as we know it today. The receiver of memories is the only person in the community who will ever know what the word "snow" means, what the word "love" means, what the word "war" means. He is given these memories by The Giver, the former receiver of memories. Jonas actually experiences each memory when The Giver lays his hands on his back and transmits the memory. The training is often brutal and painful. Throughout his training, Jonas realizes how animalistic and cold humanity has actually become and he wishes to restore love and compassion back to society.

I absolutely loved The Giver and wish I would've read it earlier in life. I certainly plan on reading more of Lowry's work. My next book of her's may be Gossamer after reading Nicola's wonderful review of that book for the RIP challenge! Sounds like a great one.

I also finished Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson today. I had read this one ages ago when I was much younger, and I remember loving it then. I remember it being such a magical book to me and relating perfectly to Jess and Leslie's kingdom. It reminded me of me and my cousin when we used to build forts outside made out of whatever wood that we could find, and to us, it would be a real battle zone. Or me and my sister would make tents in the house with the kitchen chairs and a sheet and it would be a little magical place.

So, I read this book today, years later, and what do you know, I fell right back into that place. I suspect that this will always be a special book to me. It's a comfort book. A book that I can fall into and relate to. But it's such a tragic book. No matter how many times I read it, this book will always choke me up. I won't talk about why, but for those who have read the book, I'm sure you understand.

I've yet to see the movie, because I wanted to refresh myself on the book first, but now that I've reread it, I think I'm just going to go out and buy it! I've heard nothing but good stuff about it and am really looking forward to seeing this book as a film. And I'm just thinking, this is also my first read for the Cardathon Challenge...cool!

OK, all caught up! Now, on to the RIP Challenge with Dracula!!! Yay!

And guess what?! Megan's coming in town!!! But only for a day :( But that's better than nothing. A friend of hers is coming to pick up another friend and bring him back to Texas, so he asked her if she wanted to take a ride. So I get to see her for a day. So I'll probably disappear from blogging for the next couple of days. Might be here tomorrow, but Sunday will most probably be a no show ;) Enjoy your weekend everyone!