The Giver falls into the dystopian literature category, which has been a popular genre recently, making it extremely relateable to a variety of other texts. The Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth and The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins are two book series that instantly came to mind as soon as I began to read The Giver and began to grasp the main idea of the novel. Either of these trilogies could easily be paired with this novel for a dystopian novel study where important themes such as alternate societies, families, and governments, among other ideas, could be explored.
Just a few examples of quite recently published dystopian novels that could also be paired with The Giver include:
- Article 5 (2012) by Kristen Simmons
- Uglies (2005) by Scott Westerfeld
- The Maze Runner (2009) by James Dashner
- The Selection (2012) by Kiera Cass
Through a bit of research, I discovered that The Giver is the first book in a quartet including Gathering Blue (2000), Messenger (2004) and Son (2012), all written by Lois Lowry. These texts could also easily be paired with The Giver, creating a unit that looks at all four novels and the common and individuals themes, issues, questions, and ideas that will arise throughout each of them.
Another major theme that The Giver addresses is the importance and fragility of memories, lies, and secrets. There are many texts that could be paired with this novel that explore these themes, such as:
- We Were Liars (2014) by E. Lockhart
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) by Stephen Chbosky
- Don't Look Back (2014) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
- Six Months Later (2013) by Natalie D. Richards
Tangles (2012) by Sarah Leavitt would also be a great text to pair with The Giver, with a focus on what memories are and what they really mean to us. It is a graphic novel about a women's struggle with Alzheimer's Disease from her daughter's perspective. It is an incredibly moving and beautiful text and one of my favourites of all time, and I like how it is different from the traditional novel.
There are so many other texts that connect to The Giver that I haven't discussed or covered, making it an incredibly versatile and valuable text to study with students of a variety of ages.