Customer Reviews

Looking Back: A Book of Memories

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This book deserves an award! It is one of the best books I've ever read. It is basically a book about Lois Lowery's life. It has snapshots and even a passport. She talks all about her life in this book. It is written in first person, which has a way of making you feel like you're her best friend, or mother, or sister, or brother. Some parts are funny, some parts are sad. And some parts are just true, and they happen all the time in everyone's life. I read this book cover to cover in less than a day, and I'll bet a bunch of other people did too! Get this book today!

If you are a child, parent, teacher, librarian, or just plain human - you will love this book. Especially if you have enjoyed the books of Lois Lowry, you will appreciate seeing how her own life experiences have shaped her later fiction. Not really an autobiography, not really a memoir, "Looking Back" is more a visit with a friend who tells wonderful stories and makes you feel very much at home. And the photographs are incredible. A great gift!

I think that Lois Lowry's autobiography, Looking Back, is a

not a book for people who want to learn about her recent

experiences. It is, however, a great book for people who want to

learn about her childhood. In this book, Lois shares with the reader

many snapshots and memories. Some memories make you laugh

and others make you cry. I like this book because it shows you

what Lois liked to do as a kid. She had many funny experiences.

This autobiography tells how she gets some of her inspiration. Lois

gets a lot of her thoughts and ideas from her childhood. I like how

this book shows that authors aren't just born with the power to

write; they need to work hard, too. I would like to recommend this

book to anybody-adults and children alike.

Lois Lowry ties quotes (some of them memorable) from her various novels for children (including Newbery Medalists Number the Stars and The Giver, as well as her popular Anastasia Krupnik series) to memories from her life. The words create masterful links between fiction and fact. The bonus - the photos. Each vignette is paired with a photo, entirely appropriate because of Lowry's skill as a photographer (and, from the looks of it, an inherited skill it is). The effect is absolutely affecting. This is a book for children AND adults.

Browsing at my local library, I stumbled upon this book. "HMMMM, this looks interesting," I thought to myself. Little did I know that I had found a book that would bring me to my knees crying and give me one of the biggest "book hangovers" ever. This book followed me through my weekend, and inspired me as a writer ( who wishes she could write with even 1/100th of Lowry's talent) a teacher (who thought of about a zillion really cool writing and reading lessons I could spring from this book) and as a mother (who realized the joy of life, and exactly how fragile and tenacious it really is).

You must read this book. It is easy, and unfolds into a love story, a story of loss, and a story of absolutely LIVING life with as much passion as the moment allows. I don't want to give this book away, because the suprise of it, the thing that made most of the essays connect, is what left me gasping and delighted on snowy Sunday here in Denver.

Absolutely appropriate for children, but I would guess that the essays would appeal more to girls. And if you are a teacher, you will discover a hidden treasure in the book by and about one of the most talented childrens authors of our day!

Enjoy. Have the kleenex handy.

Newbery Award winning author Lois Lowry offers her fans a creative look into her life. Using photographs, Lowry spins vignettes of memories triggered by each photo. Each chapter opens with a quotation from one of Lowry's books. From the vignettes, we learn how her life has influenced her writing. This autobiography is a very personal and intimate conversation between friends. It will appeal to both adults and children.

A friend at work lent me this book when she found out that Anastasia Krupnik was a favorite when I was growing up. I absolutely loved it! The pictures are beautiful - some sad, some funny, and some joyous. She uses the pictures of both her childhood and her children to tell the story of how she became a writer and where she found some of the ideas for her books. She also uses quotes from her books to tell her own life story. Lowry's sense of humor and style of writing make it seem like you are looking through a photo album of a close friend. It's a fascinating story about one of my favorite authors, and I will definitely buy a copy so I can read it again in the future.

The memoir I read is called "Looking Back a Book of Memories" by Lois Lowry. The book is a collection of Lois Lowry's memories throughout her life. Lois Lowry is a prize winning writer of fiction novels. Each chapter is separate memory. She begins each chapter with a quote from one of her many novels. In this memoir she relates different quotes from her novels back to life experiences. The memories that she describes seem to be used throughout her novels. Writers will draw on memories and events from their own life as part of their story telling.

Lois Lowry noted that she has a lot of babies as characters in her books. For example, in the novel "The Giver" one of the characters was the baby Gabriel. In the novel "Rabble Starkey" there was a baby named Gunter Bigelow. Lois Lowry thinks that she likes to use baby characters because she likes newborn babies. Her fondness for newborn babies was started by a picture her father took of her when she was born in 1937. Fathers weren't normally allowed in the hospital ward but he worked for the hospital and he was a photographer. Her memoir also includes pictures of grandchildren as babies.

In the book, "Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye", she describes a girl looking up as she is standing in thick forest. She describes the emotions as fearful, humorous, and warmth all wrapped together. When Lois was two years old her father took a picture of her standing in a thick "tropical growth" near her house in Hawaii. She is looking up at her father's camera in the same way that she describes the girl in the book. She comments that her life had challenges but was mostly filled with warmth and humor. She says most of the time she remembers she laughed a lot.

In the book, "Anastasia at Your Service", she describes a scene where a young boy is trying to prove to another young girl that he can read. In this scene it is very important for the young boy to be able to read and prove it. She relates this to her need to want to read. When she was 3 years old and her sister was 6 they would play school. Her sister was the teacher because she could read. Lois wanted to read so that she could be the teacher.

In her book of memories, Lois Lowry describes her life using quotes from her fictional books. She discovered that most of the scenes in her books came from her own experiences. She used her own life as an inspiration for her writing. It would be easy to find scenes inspired by her own life in her books because so much of her own life is in her books. She documented many of these in her book of memories.

How do writers create the characters for their books? Writer Lois Lowry answers this question in this beautiful book of memories. Each individual memory with accompanying black and white photograph illustrates an important event in the author's life. Together they weave a story that is impossible to put down and leaves the reader wanting more. There is humor reminiscent of Erma Bombeck and sadness that makes you want to weep. Lois Lowry includes quotes from characters in her books echoing experiences that are provided in the memories. The death of her sister is found in Number The Stars, her grandparent's house is in Autumn Street, and her son and his horse in The Giver, and she herself in books like Anastasia Krupnik and The One Hundredth Thing about Caroline. Read this book to learn more about a new friend or to find a new one.

This book is a very different type of biography. It is filled with photographs and reflections from author Lowry's past. It is homey, charming and poignant, giving the feeling of sitting down with a friend reminiscing about family and life. Lowry's stories are at times humorous and at times heartbreaking. Her reader audience will certainly enjoy this book, as Lowry is already their friend. Those who are unfamiliar with her writing will surely enjoy Lowry's amusing and touching anecdotes. It is a good book for those curious about what inspires writers to write, and a touching glimpse into the human being behind the book.