Today we interview Lois Lowry about her book, THE GIVER. Lois Lowry has written more than 20 books for young adults and is a two-time Newbery Medal winner. Lowry was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, elementary school in Carlisle, PA, and attended junior high school in Tokyo, Japan. Lowry attended Brown University and majored in writing. She left school at 19, got married, and had four children before her 25th birthday. After some time, she returned to college and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maine. Lowry didn’t start writing professionally until she was in her mid-30s. Before she begins a book, she usually knows the beginning and end of her story. When she’s not writing, Lowry enjoys gardening during the spring and summer and knitting during the winter. One of her other hobbies is photography, and her own photos grace the covers of NUMBER THE STARS, THE GIVER, and GATHERING BLUE. Linny wanted to know when Lois’ love of writing started. Lois tells us from the time she realized human beings wrote the books she wrote, so probably 7 or 8 years of age. Once when she was speaking at Brigham young University, a graduate student gave her a copy of a children’s magazine where her letter had been published and in which she reported she was writing a book and was currently on chapter 13. Lois has no memory of that letter, but says by then she was always writing by that age. Lois says she receives emails from children of about the same age of children wanting to be writers when they grew up. Nancy asked whether Lois had met an author as a child. She said, no; authors were remote creatures. However, Lois Lenski, a popular author, wrote a book named INDIAN CAPTIVE that Lois Lowry identified with strongly. She liked that she shared the same first name with the author and the illustrations of the little girl in the book resembled her! Nancy noted that Lois has said that all her books deal with the theme of the importance of human connection. As Nancy was thinking about that, she wondered whether moving around as a child somehow reinforced both the importance of human connection and the idea that humans are humans, no matter where you go. Lois told us about her parents’ meeting in the Army War College in Carlisle, PA, their move to Hawaii, where she was born, and their move back to Carlisle when WWII started. After the war, they moved to occupied Japan for several years until the start of the Korean War, when they moved back to Carlisle. Lois says she was a very bookish and introverted child and very shy. With all their moving, she had to observe the ways of each new community and peer group she entered, sometimes in the middle of the school year. Nancy asked whether Lois was aware she was moving to Tokyo at the time when they had recently been a country we were fighting against. Lois said, as a child, she wasn’t privy to the atrocities of the war. The rubble took her by surprise. She got to know Japan through reading she had done as well as she interactions with Japanese people. She told us one year her Japanese bus driver had gone to the trouble of decorating the bus for Christmas, though it was not a holiday he would have celebrated. During the ride to school, some of the older high school boys tore down the decorations and threw them at each other. Lois still remembers the driver’s face and her own feeling of inability to do anything. She gradually became aware of the discrepancy between victor and victim. She still loves visiting Japan. Nancy asked Lois how her readers have changed over the years. Lois replied that today’s readers want books that move along more quickly and that are shorter. In other words, children today seem to have shorter attention spans. She wonders whether many little girls have the patience for THE SECRET GARDEN. Lois also says today’s children have different challenges. When she was little, she knew of no divorced families. Today, divorce is a challenge for many children. Lois likes that many writers today write to the challenges children face. Lois remembers really being affected by THE YEARLING because the death of a childhood friend is so realistic. Lois notes that there are books about bullying, which is helpful and necessary for children who are facing that challenge. Linny turns our attention to THE GIVER. In the book, there is a trade-off between living a frictionless life and living a life full of joy, grief, curiosity, love, and freedom. Linny asked Lois what about this resonates with young readers. Lois notes that it is impossible to predict the popularity of books. Almost immediately, the book became popular and even among adults. One Trappist monk wrote that they had designated THE GIVER as sacred, rather than entertainment, reading because it illustrated the reality of their lives. Lois says occasionally she receives an email, these are from boys usually, telling her THE GIVER is boring. Her response is that she assumes the boy is about eight who is too young to understand the book and to give it a try when they are 13 when they might better understand. Linny and Nancy love this. Lois says THE GIVER is often assigned in school. They like the plot and identify with Jonas, the main character. Identification with the main character is the most important thing for any reader. She receives letters from adults who have read the book, too. Like Jonas, Nancy was horrified as he realizes the community is murdering those deemed unfit to live in the community. I felt that the book, in a hopeful way, suggests that we each have a deep morality we can access, despite what we are taught or what our community’s norms are. Nancy asked Lois where Jonas’s morality comes from – inborn, through the empathy of memories, through books. Lois tells us that the entire series of books culminates with empathy being the attribute that can save the world. Linny loved that Jonas took baby Gabriel with him when he fled the community. He knew Gabe was going to be killed. It was a sacrificial act because it made his journey harder, but it also gave him purpose and drive when he was ready to give up. Linny asked Lois about why she included that in the book. Lois said it is hard to remember from that many years ago. She told us that she has always regretted that the end of the book, with Jonas and Gabe traveling, is a shorter length. She wanted it to feel like it was a very long time, but with a baby who cannot talk and another character, it was hard to simply describe the landscape over and over. She notes that she left the ending ambiguous on purpose because she thought children would enjoy it. Nancy reports that she and Linny read the end of this book in two completely different ways! Nancy asked why Lois decided to write sequels that end up clearing up some of the ambiguity around the ending of THE GIVER. She said she sat down to write a new book and in the writing of it, she realized she could tie those characters to Jonas and thus, to answer her readers’ questions about his fate. In the second book, at her editor’s request, she does not name Jonas but does mention his blue eyes. In the subsequent books, she does name Jonas and Gabe and they are active characters, too. Linny notes that THE GIVER has been the target of book banning. Lois said it was targeted for banning almost immediately. She said unfortunately people seeking to ban books have often not read them. The misguided scenes they object to are Jonas’ bathing of an elderly woman, a tender scene, and Jonas’ dad’s killing of the baby. Perceptive readers will understand this is not a promotion of killing. There was even a website established that named Lois the antichrist. Lois says objectors to the book are probably, at root, most uncomfortable by the idea of a 12-year-old boy recognizing the hypocrisy of his community. Because there are more recent books that are more sexual and violent in nature, THE GIVER is no longer as often targeted for banning. Lois says teens, themselves, are the best advocates to keep books available. Nancy notes that it is ironic that in THE GIVER the community doesn’t allow residents to have any real books. Nancy notes that she was very sorry to read about the death of Lois’ son, a fighter pilot in the US Air Force. Lois has written that his death has instigated your involvement in finding ways to end conflict on our fragile planet. Nancy asked how she has done so. Lois says she wishes she could say she was impactful, but she does attend marches and protests. She enjoys talking with children and helping them understand the process of governance and the importance of their role. Nancy talks about the importance of books in shaping thought for many years beyond an author’s lifetime. Lois says the intermediaries, librarians, teachers, and publishers, are vital to getting her work to her readers. Lois tells she has just completed a new book. She can’t tell us the title, because it hasn’t been decided upon! It is the story of twins: a boy and a girl. It is set in 2099 and books have been banned since 2045 in celebration of a war ‘in the past,’ books have been banned. Lois tells us her beloved husband died at the beginning of October. At the end, when he could no longer speak, he gestured for a pen and paper. On it he wrote to Lois, “I am a bird; I can soar.” She told us she had, years ago, commissioned a sculpture to commemorate her son’s life and it represented wings and they called it “To Soar.” Now they will image them both soaring somewhere. Lois says her new book describes, in some way, the idea of soaring or becoming one with.