Chapter III: Children's Stories - Or why to keep them to read again and again

“Many, if not most, of the best and most lasting children’s books have multiple levels, some of which are not fully accessible to their most likely readers…at least, not on their first read-through at age eight or ten or fifteen.” - Patricia C. Wrede

      I touched - manhandled, really - this subject when I discussed The Giver and its following books. They are books for children and for young adults - you can see a layer or two, sometimes more if you read looking hard enough. But you do not have the life lessons necessary to fully appreciate everything when you are eight or ten or fifteen.

       When I read ElfQuest for the first time - a graphic novel dear to my heart and certainly the subject for its own blog post soon enough - I was five. I had learned to read laughably early and comic books, while not my usual fare, kept me satisfied between library trips. ElfQuest was a simple adventure to me at that time. When I read it again at age ten, I realized bits of the social layer, the complciated dealings between elves and humans and trolls, and that I could apply it to the world I knew. I then read it again every year, yearning to learn something new. It wasn't until I was eighteen that I noticed how many tens of ways love was expressed, just in the first four books. I didn't understand until I was nineteen why the elves spent their time before war the way they did, why it mattered so much to experience life in a frenzy before dealing and facing death. Whether it's a whole new lesson or noticing one new nuance to a panel, ElfQuest treats me to a novelty every time.

       The same happens with all the children's books I read. I have shelves in my room dedicated to the books I read when I was younger, from picture books (I still learn from those) to "Independent Readers" to YA, and even the fantasy fiction I read far too early. I make a habit of rereading those when I can. The Giver gets a new reading every year, ElfQuest every two; Ender's Game makes the rounds every two years as well, while books like The Westing Game and Dealing with Dragons (by the author of that lovely quote) and its subsequent books get back into my hands every three or four years. And those are just the titles that are frequent. I've done this so many times - it's really no wonder my "to-read" shelves take so long to get any smaller.

       If you've never given yourself the pleasure of revisiting an old favorite, do so. You'll notice little things you never knew you'd missed, and maybe find a lesson or two that were hiding between the lines, waiting for you to experience just the right things in life. A book is never, ever the same twice.

Chapter II: The Giver - Or I'm so lame I steal from myself

          I'm stealing from myself. Is that hip or lame? Anyway, we're on such a YA kick that I wanted to share my thoughts about a set that did make the top 100 - The Giver and its companion books. I originally posted this on the YA blog for my library (links to the side!).

          Many young adults have been assigned the iconic novel The Giver by Lois Lowry in some grade or another. I remember my first assignment to read it back in the third grade for a gifted class. I was required to read it again in the fifth grade, and once more in the sixth, and then in my college days, I was asked in my third year while taking a creative writing class for children and young adults. But school wasn't the only time I would read this remarkable classic - after my first introduction to the novel, I read it at least once a year. Every year I would discover something a little different, and as I grew up, the book grew up with me.
          If you haven't read the book since you had to for class, give it another go. The themes are poignant and timeless and some things will have evolved in your mind - exactly what the Stirrings mean, how many different variations of love you can find in your life, the fierce impulses to protect a young life. This is a novel that can grow with its reader, and no one is too old to rediscover something beautiful about it.
            And the story doesn't end with The Giver. Many don't realize it is part of a series - once a trilogy, now an impending quartet. The second book, Gathering Blue, is a tale in a dystopian society that doesn't have the outward glamor of a utopia like the communities of The Giver. It is a society that in the face of the nameless horrors that plagued the world before chose to regress into a setting that feels like it is set in a quasi-Renaissance village. Most villagers don't know about running water or electricity. Young protagonist Kira is taken from this rough life in the village to a life of comfort within the village center. There she learns of the horrors of society before her simplistic village - bombs, fires, destruction. Like Jonas, her eyes are opened to both the wonders and the terrors of the world before - our world. While Jonas never makes an actual appearance in the novel, he is mentioned by a description that is unmistakable to any who have read The Giver.
          Following Gathering Blue is the novel Messenger. This novel ties the previous two together, whereas Gathering Blue had been a companion to the first. The main protagonist is Matty, a boy introduced in the prior novel. Kira and Jonas play supportive roles in this novel. Much more straightforward about its themes (namely materialism and how it corrupts), it reads for a much younger crowd than the other two novels. That said, Lowry's prose retains all of its magical qualities, transporting the reader to this strange village that bridges the gap between The Giver and Gathering Blue. The protagonist is not initially the same sort of quiet thinker as Jonas and Kira, but Matty finds himself more and more reflective as the novel progresses, and we learn as much from him as from his predecessors.
           I mentioned that the series is now becoming a quartet. Lois Lowry has written a fourth book to the series, Son, which will be released October 2. A more direct sequel to The Giver, set in the same place, it ties together the previous three novels. The released summary holds grand promises, and as I must wait until October 2 along with so many others, all I can do is quote it (found on both Amazon and B&N's webpages) with great excitement.

Told in three separate story lines, Lois Lowry’s Son combines elements from the first three novels in her Giver Quartet—The Giver (1994 Newbery Medal winner), Gathering Blue, and Messenger—into a breathtaking, thought-provoking narrative that wrestles with ideas of human freedom. Thrust again into the dark, claustrophobic world of The Giver, readers will meet an intriguing new heroine, fourteen-year-old Claire. Jonas from The Giver is here too, and Kira, the heroine of Gathering Blue. In a final clash between good and evil, a new hero emerges.

          I hope that if you have not had the chance to read the series that follows The Giver, you will give the rest of Lowry's world a chance. It may be dark, but the hopeful lights of the characters will give you cause to reflect on values you may have otherwise taken for granted, such as choice, acceptance, and compassion.