The Giver is in Theaters

The movie adaptation of The Giver by Lois Lowry has been released 21 years after the novels debut.  The book is critically acclaimed; it has won numerous awards including the 1994 Newbery Medal.  Despite all of the awards, this book is also frequently on banned book lists around the country, and it is currently listed on the American Library Association’s website under 100 most challenged books from 1990-1999.
 
Lois Lowry shares her thoughts on banning The Giver on her website.
I think banning books is a very, very dangerous thing. It takes away an important freedom. Any time there is an attempt to ban a book, you should fight it as hard as you can. It's okay for a parent to say, "I don't want my child to read this book." But it is not okay for anyone to try to make that decision for other people. The world portrayed in The Giver is a world where choice has been taken away. It is a frightening world. Let's work hard to keep it from truly happening.
 

Whether you have read the book or not, the movie version of this celebrated “banned book” is going to help spread the importance of reading across America this weekend.  If you see The Giver in theaters LABOR DAY WEEKEND, fifty cents of each ticket sold will be donated to NEA’s Read Across America initiative to help buy books for children across America.