Publication Date: December 1983 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up
A long, boring summer--that's what Anastasia has to look forward to when her best friend goes off to camp. She's thrilled when old Mrs. Bellingham answers her ad for a job as a Lady's Companion. Anastasia is sure her troubles are over--she'll be busy and earn money!
But she doesn't expect to have to polish silver and serve at Mrs. Bellingham's granddaughter's birthday party as a maid! As if that isn't bad enough, she accidentally drops a piece of silverware down the garbage disposal and must use her earnings to pay for it! Is the summer destined to be a disaster?
A long, boring summer--that's what Anastasia has to look forward to when her best friend goes off to camp. She's thrilled when old Mrs. Bellingham answers her ad for a job as a Lady's Companion. Anastasia is sure her troubles are over--she'll be busy and earn money!
But she doesn't expect to have to polish silver and serve at Mrs. Bellingham's granddaughter's birthday party as a maid! As if that isn't bad enough, she accidentally drops a piece of silverware down the garbage disposal and must use her earnings to pay for it! Is the summer destined to be a disaster?
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Lois Lowry is known for her versatility and invention as a writer. She was born in Hawaii and grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, and Japan. After several years at Brown University, she turned to her family and to writing. She is the author of more than thirty books for young adults, including the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader.s Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER. Her first novel, A SUMMER TO DIE, was awarded the International Reading Association.s Children.s Book Award. Ms. Lowry now divides her time between Cambridge and an 1840s farmhouse in Maine. To learn more about Lois Lowry, see her website at www.loislowry.com
author interview A CONVERSATION WITH LOIS LOWRY ABOUT THE GIVER
Q. When did you know you wanted to become a writer?
A. I cannot remember ever not wanting to be a writer.
Q. What inspired you to write The Giver?
A. Kids always ask what inspired me to write a particular book or how did I get an idea for a particular book, and often it's very easy to answer that because books like the Anastasia books come from a specific thing; some little event triggers an idea. But a book like The Giver is a much more complicated book, and therefore it comes from much more complicated places--and many of them are probably things that I don't even recognize myself anymore, if I ever did. So it's not an easy question to answer.
I will say that the whole concept of memory is one that interests me a great deal. I'm not sure why that is, but I've always been fascinated by the thought of what memory is and what it does and how it works and what we learn from it. And so I think probably that interest of my own and that particular subject was the origin, one of many, of The Giver.
Q. How did you decide what Jonas should take on his journey?
A. Why does Jonas take what he does on his journey? He doesn't have much time when he sets out. He originally plans to make the trip farther along in time, and he plans to prepare for it better. But then, because of circumstances, he has to set out in a very hasty fashion. So what he chooses is out of necessity. He takes food because he needs to survive. He takes the bicycle because he needs to hurry and the bike is faster than legs. And he takes the baby because he is going out to create a future. And babies always represent the future in the same way children represent the future to adults. And so Jonas takes the baby so the baby's life will be saved, but he takes the baby also in order to begin again with a new life.
Q. When you wrote the ending, were you afraid some readers would want more details or did you want to leave the ending open to individual interpretation?
A. Many kids want a more specific ending to The Giver. Some write, or ask me when they see me, to spell it out exactly. And I don't do that. And the reason is because The Giver is many things to many different people. People bring to it their own complicated beliefs and hopes and dreams and fears and all of that. So I don't want to put my own feelings into it, my own beliefs, and ruin that for people who create their own endings in their minds.
Q. Is it an optimistic ending? Does Jonas survive?
A. I will say that I find it an optimistic ending. How could it not be an optimistic ending, a happy ending, when that house is there with its lights on and music is playing? So I'm always kind of surprised and disappointed when some people tell me that they think the boy and the baby just die. I don't think they die. What form their new life takes is something I like people to figure out for themselves. And each person will give it a different ending. I think they're out there somewhere and I think that their life has changed and their life is happy, and I would like to think that's true for the people they left behind as well.
Q. In what way is your book Gathering Blue a companion to The Giver?
A. Gathering Blue postulates a world of the future, as The Giver does. I simply created a different kind of world, one that had regressed instead of leaping forward technologically as the world of The Giver has. It was fascinating to explore the savagery of such a world. I began to feel that maybe it coexisted with Jonas's world . . . and that therefore Jonas could be a part of it in a tangential way. So there is a reference to a boy with light eyes at the end of Gathering Blue. He can be Jonas or not, as you wish.
Anastasia At Your Service is about a 12 year old girl who put an ad out to be a companion to an elderly, wealthy, woman. Instead Mrs.Bellingham who is a rich old woman who Anastasia works for made Anastasia servant. Anastasia became friends with Mrs.Bellingham’s granddaughter Daphne. Anastasia and Daphne agree that Mrs. Bellingham is really mean. So they have a plan to humiliate her at a party, but how will they do it? If you like drama, comedy, and mystery you should read this book by Lois Lowry.
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I first read this book when I was in 3rd grade. I loved it then, and I still love it now. This is a fantastic novel, like all others of the Anastasia series, except for Anastasia Krupnik, which I found quite weak. I could relate to Anastasia because my family moves often. Anastasia is looking for a job, because she is in the depths of despair. Boredom and poverty are the reasons. So her father, an English professor at Harvard and a list-maker, tells her the answer -- find a job. So Anastasia sets out to be a rich old lady's Companion -- not for a poor or middle class lady, no, she had to be rich. When rich old Mrs. Bellingham calls her, replying to the job offer, Anastasia is very excited and happy. Until she starts the job. When she is given the chore of polishing silver, Anastasia tells herself it's just an emergency. Then she finds out Mrs. Bellingham is taking adventage of her -- using her as a maid at baby-sitters pay! Anastasia and her new friend Daphne, Mrs. Bellingham's granddaughter, set out to get revenge on her. You have to read this WONDERFUL book to discover what happens next. I don't want to sound like that commercial about men's suits, but I guarentee you will love this hilarious book.
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This story is about a girl named Anastasia Krupnik who is on summer vacation. She is a twelve year old girl who is a maid for a wealthy old lady named: Mrs. Bellingham. But Anastasia wanted to become a companion instead of maid, she was too scared to tell Mrs. Bellingham. So she works hard and does what the other maids tell her to do. Anastasia worked VERY VERY hard. Anastasia has another problem at home too. Her brother, Sam, a two-year-old boy had a terrible accident. One night he was getting something and he fell out his window which is a tall height. Anastasia was at Daphne's house. Anastasia met Daphne at Mrs. Bellingham's party. Daphne is Mrs. Bellingham's granddaughter. When Anastasia found out she was really sad. The people at the hospital had to shave his hair. Now that Sam is bald he calls himself Bald Eagle. Then he talks about a lady named Ms. Flypaper. His family think she's an imaginary friend. He talks about her often when he finally got home. At the end of the summer Anastasia and Sam went to Mrs. Bellingham's place to get Anastasia's pay. When Sam saw Mrs. Bellingham he was shocked to see her again. Ms. Flypaper was Mrs. Bellingham because she volunteers at the hospital. She was the one who took care of Sam. I really enjoyed this INTERESTING book. It was a nice story and I hope others would like it too! You should read these Anastasia Krupnik series because it is very detailed that you actually think you are right there watching it happen!
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First Sentence:
"Groan," said Anastasia Krupnik feebly, and kicked the living room couch with one sneaker. Read the first pageKey Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Daphne Bellingham, Henry James, Billie Holiday, Anastasia Krupnik, Bald Eagle, Dramatic Club, Bellmeadow Farm, Captain Marvel, Ferris Bellingham, Holy Moley, Edna Fox, Joan Crawford, Willa Bellingham, New York, Terrible News, The Turn of the Screw, Troubled Skin
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