When did they write the novel? The Giver was published in 1993, when Lois Lowry was 56 years old.
What was their upbringing like? Lois Lowry was born the middle child of three. Her father was an Army dentist, so although she was born in Hawaii, she moved all over the world.She attended Brown University, but left after her sophomore year to get married and raise a family of four children. After she and her family settled in Maine, she returned to college and then received her degree from the University of Southern Maine. She began writing in the mid-1970's. She is now divorced and lives in West Cambridge with her dog.
What was their first book, and what did it contain? Her first book was called A Summer to Die, and as she says on her web site, it was a "highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family".
What other books have they written?
A Summer to Die. Boston. MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1978.
Anastasia Krupnik. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.
Autumn Street. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.
Anastasia Again! Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1981.
Anastasia at Your Service. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1982.
Taking Care of Terrific. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1983.
Anastasia Ask Your Analyst. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
Us and Uncle Fraud. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
One Hundredth Thing About Caroline. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
Anastasia on Her Own. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
Switcharound. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
Anastasia Has the Answers. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1986.
Rabble Starkey. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
Anastasia's Chosen Career. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
All About Sam. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1988.
Number the Stars. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.
Your Move J.P.! Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
Anastasia at This Address. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.
Attaboy, Sam! Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.
The Giver. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
Anastasia, Absolutely. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.
See You Around Sam! Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
Has this author won any awards for their writing? What were they? Yes, she has won a number of awards. They are:
A Summer to Die.
Children's Literature Award, International Reading Association, 1978.
Autumn Street.
American Library Association Notable Book Award citation, 1980.
Anastasia Again!
American Book Award Nomination (juvenile paperback category), 1983.
Rabble Starkey.
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Golden Kite Award, Society of Children's Book Writers, and Child Study Award , Children's Book Committee of Bank Street College, 1987.
Number the Stars
Newbery Medal, National Jewish Book Award, and Sidney Taylor Award, National Jewish Libraries, 1990.
The Giver.
Newbery Medal, 1994.
What influenced their writing? In this article, published in The Washington Post, Lowry explains that even as a child, she was constantly narrating her life in her mind, and she was always keeping her audience in mind. However, her imagination caused her to embellish things about her life, and she got in some trouble for her "lying". Her camp counselors caught one of these embellishments, when she told them that she had a brother named David who went to Princeton. She writes, "I was forced to embellish, to give David a hair color and a height and some hobbies (blond, tall, baseball) until I almost began to believe in him myself and to watch for his car (blue Ford) to drive up on a Saturday morning." However, at the end of her article, she says that even the stories she writes about herself are lies, so this could also be a work of fiction. She challenges us to decide what part of reality is true and what part is "embellished" by this writing. She says that her grandfather imparted his love of literature on to her, and she always aimed to please him.
Where do they work and live? She has two homes, one in Cambridge and one in Maine. She still writes, and her book The Willoughbys will be out this spring. She spends her time gardening, feeding birds, entertaining her friends, and reading.
What is their life like now (if still living)? She spends her time gardening, feeding birds, entertaining her friends, and reading. She also has three children (one died as a fighter pilot in the Air Force) and some grandchildren.
What do they have to say about their own writing? She says that her books"speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment."-from her web site.
"But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that
separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom.Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things." -from her Newberry Medal Award acceptance speech, found on her web site.
Part 2: Reflection
- The three web sites I found this information on are: http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/lowry.html. This web site is credible because it is from an educational web site, and was written as a source for teachers and educators. I chose this source because it was a good place to find a lot of the information I needed all on one page. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/14/ST2008031403262.html?sid=ST20: This web site is where I found the Washington Post article. I chose it because it is a publication web site, and therefore something that has been published by someone else. I used it because I wanted to read an excerpt about her own life that she had written. http://www.loislowry.com/: This web site is written and maintained by Lowry herself, therefore I knew it was credible and knew that I could get answers to my inquiry straight from the author herself.
- I simply typed "Lois Lowry" into Google to start my search. Many pages came up, and I read the explanations of them as well as scanned what types of web sites they were. I chose to omit sites like Wikipedia, where anyone can go on and change or skew information, and tried to use as much from Lowry's own writing as I could. Therefore, I mainly used information from her personal web site.
- I always keep in mind the nature of Internet research when I do it, and therefore I am always skeptical of it. Lowry could easily have hired someone to update, write on, and maintain www.loislowry.com, but since she is a highly-respected writer, I do not think she would want someone else writing her own words. I believe that she did write the article in The Washington Post, or else it would not have been published in it. I also think that, although it is my weakest source, the Rutgers web site still offered information that has been widely published elsewhere.
