Bethan, gleeful, left
Artist?' Thomas suggested. 'That's a word. I've never heard anyone say it, but I've read it in some of the books. It means, well, someone who makes something beautiful. Would that be a word?
A book, to me, is almost sacrosanct: such an individual and private thing.
Villagers
You have the colors, The Giver told him. And you have the courage. I will help you to have the strength.
Surely that gift—the gift of a world of human decency—is the one that all countries hunger for still.
Sometimes I wish they'd ask for my wisdom more often - there are so many things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they don't want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable...
So, Henrik, is the weather good for fishing? Papa asked cheerfully, and listened briefly. Then he continued, I’m sending Inge to you today with the children, and she will be bringing you a carton of c...
She had seen her son for the first time, in this place, when he was a child of eight or nine. She remembered that day. He ran along the path near the cottage to which she had been assigned, calling to...
Selected for what? Claire had never heard of such a thing before. Rolf raised an eyebrow and shrugged. I don’t know. Didn’t she say? Yes, but I didn’t understand what she was talking about. Did any of...
Oh! Lovely! said Nanny. You are an old fashioned family, like us. We are four worthy orphans with a no-nonsense nanny. Like Mary Poppins? suggested the man, with a pleased look of recognition. Not one...
Of course they needed to care. It was the meaning of everything. And
No. But why would I go back? I had found a home here, the way everyone has. That’s why we have the Museum, Matty, to remind us of how we came, and why: to start fresh, and begin a new place from what...
No one mentioned such things; it was not a rule, but was considered rude to call attention to things that were unsettling or different about individuals.
Jonas reached the opposite side of the river, stopped briefly, and looked back. The community where his entire life had been lived lay behind him now, sleeping. At dawn, the orderly, disciplined life...
It was so—oh, I wish language were more precise! The red was so beautiful!The Giver nodded. It is.Do you see it all the time?I see all of them. All the colors.Will I?
It was so important to him, and he made it important to me: poetry, and language, and how we use it to remind ourselves of how our lives should be lived . . .
If he had stayed, he would have starved in other ways.
I'm grateful to you, Jonas, because without you I would never have figured out a way to bring about the change. But your role now is to escape. And my role is to stay.
I will take care of that, sir. I will take care of that, sir, Jonas mimicked in a cruel, sarcastic voice. I will do whatever you like, sir. I will kill people, sir. Old people? Small new born people?...