The Giver Journal Prompts

1. What will become of Jonas and Gabe?  Write your ideas about their future.

2. If you could give one thing to Jonas to take on his journey, what would it be?  Explain your choice.

3. What will happen in Jonas’s old community?  What changes will take place?

1. Think about the plan that The Giver and Jonas develop.  What are the causes that lead to this plan?  What effect will the plan have?

2. Think about music and how much a part of your day it is.  What kind of music do you hear, and where do you hear it?  What is your favourite kind of music?  In Chapter 20, it becomes clear that only The Giver can hear music.  Why do you think the community has no music?  Why would it have been excluded from their experience?

1. Each day The Giver must decide what memory to give to Jonas.  They are, of course, not just his personal memories but also the collective memories of the whole community, stretching far back in time.  Choose something that has happened in our world’s history in the recent or far-off past and transmit that memory to Jonas with words.  Why have you chosen that event to give to him?  What will Jonas learn from it?  How will it make him wiser?

2. Jonas spends all day with The Giver.  What do you notice about their relationship? Write about a few things they say to each other (or don’t say).  Note how they act around each other.  What questions do you have about their relationship?  How does it differ from other relationships in the community?

1. How would the story be different if Jonas told it in his own words?  What if the narrator were completely omniscient and knew much more than everyone in the community?

2. Transmit one of your own memories.  Write about it in such a way that the reader can feel what you are describing.  Use all your senses as you write to capture sights, sounds, flavors, textures, colors, and rhythms.  Before you begin, reread how Lois Lowry describes first experience of snow.  Notice all the different senses she captures.

1. What is Jonas’s Assignment?  What kind of clues have you picked up as read that hint at what might happen to him next?  Make a prediction about what will happen to Jonas.

2. Jonas must attend a ceremony before he receives his Assignment.  Does the ceremony remind you of any similar events that you have experienced?  Describe a ceremony you have participated in or watched.  Compare and contrast with Jonas’s.

3. Before each Twelve receives his or her Assignment, the Chief Elder tells stories about that child.  Imagine you are one of the New Twelves.  What stories would the Chief Elder tell about you?

1. Jonas cannot stop thinking about what choices the Elders will make for his future career.  Do you have any idea yet about what you want to be when you become an adult?  What particular talents and interests do you have?  What profession make use of such skills?  If your parents were going to decide your future, which career do you think they would choose for you?  Explain why they would make that choice.  Would you agree or disagree with it?

2. Lily is looking forward to becoming a Nine and getting a bike.  Have you ever had to wait until you were a certain age before you received a specific thing or a privilege?  Make a timeline showing the different things and activities that you were allowed to do as you got older.

1. How do you visualize Jonas and the rest of the community?  Describe what you think the characters and certain locations look like.

2. What have you noticed about Jonas’s family? How is it organized? How do people treat each other? Think about your own family and other families you know.  Describe them.  What make a family in our society? What makes a family in Jonas’s society?

1. “It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.”

What do you notice about this opening sentence from The Giver? What kind of picture does it produce in your mind? What feeling does this sentence create? What observations can you make about the way the book begins?

2. Notice where Jonas lives.  Where does this story take place?  What kind of world is it?  What can you tell from the first chapter about life in this world?  Does it remind of you anywhere else you’ve read about or experienced?

3. Based on your reading of the first chapter, what do you predict will happen in the upcoming chapters?

1.  Imagine you could create a perfect world.  How would it be different from the world you live in right now?  How would it be the same?  Imagine yourself living there and describe what an ordinary day would be like.

2.  Do you have a grandparent or older person to who you are close?  What kind of stories have they told you?  Write about some memories they have shared with you.  Do you enjoy hearing their stories?  Explain why or why not.

3.  Describe one of your most precious memories.  Include all details of that day or moment that you remember.  Try to relive the event as you write it.

4.  Write about a time in your life whey things changed.  Maybe something happened to you, such as a move or divorce.  Maybe something shifted inside you, and you looked at the world around you differently.  Describe what happened and how you felt.