Parents' Guide to

Son: The Giver, Book 4

By Patricia Tauzer, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 11+

Classic battle pulls quest quartet to exciting conclusion.

Book Lois Lowry Science Fiction 2012
Son: The Giver, Book 4 Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Community Reviews

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age 13+

Based on 3 parent reviews

lyG
lyG Parent of 3, 6 and 11-year-old
October 15, 2015
age 16+

12 year old birth mother! Parents be careful what your young children are reading!

Don't let you 11 year old read this as it states this is the recommended age. My daughter brought home this book, it caught my attention when she said she was confused as to what insemination was. Needless to say she stopped reading it, turns out that the first chapter goes into, yet again another controlled society; where this 12 year old has the pleasure to be given the job as a birth mother, who births children. Not only is she 12! but did I forget to mention that they blind fold her and tie her to the bed? by the way in this particular moment when this is unfolding she is now 14 and giving birth to baby no. 2. Well No freaking thank you! I don't want my daughter reading this junk. This is not the type of sick fiction children should be reading, fiction should entice young minds to be better people, make a difference and be KIDS. Do I want my 11 year old to be thinking about being inseminated over and over again in a controlled society at the age of 12? No. What is the benefit of this? Good read, I think NOT. I refuse to go any further in the book. This book shouldn't be in elementary school where my daughter found it! Change the age recommendations of this book. Shame on you! There is no exact button for sick and disturbing so I will push all the negative ones.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
1 person found this helpful.
Felipe Carmona
Felipe Carmona Adult
February 28, 2015
age 11+

Conclusion

This story is the conclusion to the giver quartet. It starts about a girl name Claire. Claire was found when she was washed up on the shore. People never knew that Claire came from a community that color and emotions didn't exist. She had made her on task to do and that is to find her child. That was Claire's task to find her child because it was stolen from her body when she was fourteen. Nothing will stop Claire to find her child even if it means to sacrifice her life. A central conflict is when Claire was on the shore and had a serious bad condition which almost got in the way of her task. One of the themes that this book has is sacrifice. Sacrifice because Claire would sacrifice her life to find her child. What I think of this book is okay because i thought there would be more action like in the Messenger when Matty has a Journey through forest. I would recommend this book to other people because this shows the sacrifice that one person would do for one.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
See all 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

The Son begins as Claire's story, then interweaves with the stories of Jonas, Kira, and Matt (of the previous three books in the quartet), and ends as her son Gabe's story. All are heroic quests of different sorts that deal with similar themes of an unlikely hero confronting or escaping evil. As a young girl, Claire's selected to be a "vessel" -- to bear children for the community. She's not thrilled with the idea and doesn't really understand what it's all about. When her "product" (child) has to be delivered by caesarian section, she's considered a failure and is reasssigned to work in the fish hatchery. But one mistake is made: The community doesn't restart her on the pills given to all the nonvessels to make them impotent and passionless. She's driven to find her child and hopes to escape with him. But he disappears before she can effect a plan. Nevertheless, she takes off, hoping to find him. Eventually, after an arduous journey, she makes a deal with the Trademaster, a black-cloaked, violent personification of pure evil and finds Gabe, but her deal will make things complicated. Then it becomes Gabe's story, which pulls all four books together in a final confrontation with the ultimate force of evil.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3):
Kids say (14):

SON is adventurous, exciting, and very engaging, especially the second and third sections. Some readers may not enjoy the beginning chapters that describe Claire's experience in the birthing facility as much as the later parts, where she finds her strength, builds on it, and takes off on her quest journey. From then on, through Gabe's final confrontation with the Trademaster, the action and intrigue don't stop.

While author Lois Lowry uses many classic images, she adds enough creative twists to make the stories unique. And she masterfully pulls all the stories together to make her larger point about the importance of personal freedom, the strength of love, and the value of believing in yourself. Readers will understand and enjoy The Son more if they have read each of the other three books in The Giver quartet beforehand, though it could stand on its own.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the various trades that people made in the book. Do you think any of them made sense? Could Claire have done anything else? What kinds of trades would you be willing to make?

  • Son is the fourth book in a quartet. Do you think Books 2, 3, and 4 added to the story of The Giver and made it better? Is it what you expected would happen? Do you appreciate knowing the conclusion?

  • Why do you think it's so important for Gabe to face the Trademaster alone? Can you think of other stories where a small but innocent and good hero dares to confront a mighty foe who seems to have all the power and weapons?

Book Details

  • Author: Lois Lowry
  • Genre: Science Fiction
  • Topics: Adventures
  • Book type: Fiction
  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • Publication date: October 2, 2012
  • Publisher's recommended age(s): 12 - 18
  • Number of pages: 400
  • Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
  • Last updated: July 12, 2017

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