Lois Lowry answers your questions

Ms. Lowry, Thank you for your wonderful contributions to YA literature! I will be studying THE GIVER with my eighth grade students this year. One of our essential questions for the book is about the impact of shared memories on identity and unity in a group. Do you have any thoughts about this that you would be willing to share with my students? Thank you!

Lois Lowry I don't have the book in front of me but I believe it contains a line (which I think is not in the movie, though I may be wrong) in which The Giver tells Jonas that memories must be shared. "Community" is a misnomer without a shared past.

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The Giver is one of my favorite all time books. I have a son named Asher because of it (and he is living up to his namesake... I asked for that one). What do you think happened to Asher? Did he ever find a way to change things?

Lois Lowry The "book" Asher peobably went on to do a good job and lead a fun-filled life. "The "movie" Asher is a more complex character!

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What was your inspiration for creating the character of Gooney Bird Greene? Love the books and plan on encouraging my teachers to use them during writer's workshop, also good for our character development unit of study in reader's workshop!

Lois Lowry My own childhood memories inspired the GBG books. As a shy child I so envied those classmates who were self-confident and popular

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If you were writing the Anastasia books in 2014 what, if anything, would you change about the characters or the stories?

Lois Lowry I suppose they would have cell phones and computers!

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My daughters and I are big fans of your historical fiction style books because they bring history to life by personalizing it. Have you thought of writing books featuring other historical events and/ or period?

Lois Lowry I have written several books in that genre: THE SILENT BOY is set in 1911; LIKE THE WILLOW TREE in 1918; and NUMBER THE STARS in 1943.

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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)

Lois Lowry The actor Sean Astin is trying to get the film NUMBER THE STARS made.

and yes, Jonas and Gabriel appear in subsequent books that follow THE GIVER.

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Hi Lois, I love all your books but I think the first book I read by you was Rabble Starkey. Where did this character come from and did you get any resistance from your publishers for writing about such a young teen mom? Thanks!

Lois Lowry No, no resistance from my publisher or from the critics. I loved writing this book and it is good to hear it mentioned after all these years. I love that the young mother started out with so little, and so many obstacles, but by the end of the book was on her way to a bright future.

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How different were all the villages throughout the giver quartet? I think about this all the time. Was there ever war between them? How did they all relate so peacefully? Were they all one body that worked together? More specifically, how did one community have the capability to stop the human brain, and another not even able to survive? Thank you so much

Lois Lowry It is possible that in the future....long after the fourth book...conflict would arise between communities. Sadly, history tells us that it always does.

BUT there is the possiblity that Gabe's defeat of the evil represented by Trademaster in the fourth book might mean that world conflict has ended.

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Hi Lois! I really liked the Giver and saw the movie right when it came out, but my question is about Jonas's age. In your book Jonas and his classmates are 12 years old but in the movie it seems like their assigned numbers go by grade rather age. So I was wondering if you like the "12th grade Jonas" in the movie or "12 year old Jonas" in your book better for the story overall. Thanks!

Lois Lowry I think the "older" JOnas in the ovie works just fine, because the teenagers in the movie have led such restricted lives that they seem unsophisticated, innocent, and childlike, like 12 year olds

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In our violence saturated world, why is the type of violence depicted in The Giver (and sequels) so difficult to handle emotionally? Was this intentional?

Lois Lowry I think an author works hard to affect an audience emotionally. Perhaps doing see affects, eventually, how people deal with the real world

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Hello Lois what inspired you to write the giver and what story that you wrote give you your big break and I write stories too and I'm in 8th grade this year and i would loveto meet you in person and get your autograph and hang out with you

Lois Lowry The story I wrote that led to a publisher asking me to wrote my first book was called "Crow Call"... It was later re-published as a picture book

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Dear Lois, I have a two part question: 1) Were you a ever member of the Junior League of Portland? I work at the Association of Junior Leagues and we are curious to know! 2) What inspired you to write The Giver? Your novel was an introduction to dystopian fiction and 15 years later I still love this genre and have fond memories of The Giver. Thank you!

Lois Lowry Yes, many years ago I was a member of the Junior League of Portland.

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What was your biggest inspiration to begin writing? Did you love books as a child?

Lois Lowry I grew up in a house filled with books and with a mother who read to her children. Two great gifts form my childhood.

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Why is it that classrooms and, I'm assuming, the film only focus on the first book of The Giver series? I read it 10 years ago and just recently found out that there were even three other books. What happened?

Lois Lowry There would have been no time for the film to incorporate the other books. I am kind of sorry they didn't take all four books and make a 12-part TV series..

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What's the best "Number the Stars inspired me" story you've ever been told?

Lois Lowry I guess the time I learned of a grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, who had never told her own children her story until a grandchild read NUMBER THE STARS

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