Messenger

Lois Lowry

Apr 2004 · Giver Quartet Book 3 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

The third book in Lois Lowry's Giver Quartet, which began with the bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning The Giver.

Trouble is brewing in Village. Once a utopian community that prided itself on welcoming strangers, Village will soon be cut off to all outsiders.

As one of the few able to traverse the forbidding Forest, Matty must deliver the message of Village’s closing and try to convince Seer’s daughter Kira to return with him before it’s too late. But Forest is now hostile to Matty as well. Now he must risk everything to fight his way through it, armed only with an emerging power he cannot yet explain or understand.

"Told in simple, evocative prose, this companion to The Giver and Gathering Blue can stand on its own as a powerful tale of great beauty." —Kirkus (starred review)

Messenger is the masterful third novel in Lois Lowry’s Giver Quartet, which includes The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Son.

Ratings and reviews

The Messenger is an interesting book that talks about the story of this young boy called Matty. Matty lived with a blind man called Seer, who adopted him when he was new to the village six years ago. Queer changes had been taking place in the Village recently—villagers were trading things that they owned for new things that they had wanted dearly. For example, Mentor, the teacher that Matty had looked up to the most, traded his inner self for another’s woman love. Overwhelmed with greed, the villagers turned cruel and unsympathetic after the trades. Finally, the selfish villagers voted to close the village to the outsiders who were gushing into the village, escaping from the brutal outside world. They no longer wanted to share their village with the others anymore. However, Seer’s daughter, Kira, must be fetched back before the village closed down to outsiders. Forest, which was described as a living thing in the book, was known to be a ferocious beast that would attacked anyone that tries to cross the forest. However, this forest surrounds the entire village. Fortunately, the forest seemed to favor Matty a lot. It would not attack Matty If he attempts to cross the forest. Matty, who promised Seer to bring back his daughter, faced danger in the forest after having persuaded Kira to return. Kira, who was borned with a twisted leg could not walk normally and worst still, the forest seemed to have launched a full attack on Matty, with Kira alongside. It injured both of them deliberately and blocked their paths with poisonous plants and thorny vines that had never once grown in it before. Soon, they were trapped in the forest, unable to proceed, both gravely injured. Leader was very worried about them and he decided to go to the forest to find the two children. Unfortunately, Leader, himself, was trapped in the forest. When things seemed hopeless, Matty used his gift to save them. This gift was one that had both confused and scared Matty. Matty could heal living things, both mentally and physically. Slamming both hands on the floor, Matty felt the power in the tips of his fingers, in the whorls and crevices of his outer skin. He felt his blood beginning to warm and flow through his veins. With a sudden burst of power, he managed to heal the souls of the villagers who had traded their inner-self for things they wanted. However, Matty perished as a result. In the book, the forest seemed to reflect the emotional state of the villagers. As the villagers became more selfish and hostile towards the newcomers, the forest became more merciless, growing poisonous plants and vines that would entangle those who attempts to pass through. But when the villagers became friendly, kind and generous again, the forest returned to its original state, and the poisonous plants and vines disappeared. I liked this story and would like to recommend it to everyone because this is a typical story of how an innocent but determined child overpowers the greed that caused the world to take a turn for the worse. However, in some ways, it is rather similar to the society we live in. In our society, people around us would often give up their true-self for luxury items or physical beauty. If human were to be content with what they have, a lot of terrible things won’t happen. When blinded by greed, we tend to neglect the things that are much more important than the luxuries we seek. It is in our nature to always be pursuing things that we don’t have and might never have but failing to appreciate the beauty of what we possess.

I loved this book! I couldn't get enough of The Giver, after reading it in high school, 15 years ago. Gathering Blue was alright, but this one I couldn't stop reading. The last chapters of Messenger really teared me up. Can't wait to see what lies ahead in the next book.

This is an amazing book I read it once in 6th grade it blew my mind. I've never read anything so wonderful in my life. This book is so interesting I could not put it down for 1 second.

About the author

Lois Lowry is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the New York Times bestselling Giver Quartet and 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 Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, Number the Stars and The Giver.