With so many young adult novels going to the big screen, one has to wonder if they will ever wear us out. The truth is there are endless stories from which to pull from and make into a film. Sometimes 2 different directors can take the same story in very different directions and we would watch both. The common theme of the young adult genre so far has been dystopian futures of hardship or conformity for the greater good. Look no further than The Hunger Games or Divergent. Better yet the upcoming Maze Runner. We view our future has bleak and our children in danger.
This is nothing new in science fiction and fantasy either. We all believe deep down that one day our own fears and science will drive us off a cliff and that may be true but are there at least a few of us who think that perhaps the world won’t be such a bleak place in the future? The Giver is based on a novel which is wildly popular, even earning awards but it is not a newer novel it was written in 1993. Many of us have read this book in school at some point but when I watched this trailer, I was amazed at the refreshingly different feel I got from it versus what I remember reading at a much younger age. Check it out and tell us what you think?
http://youtu.be/eTspwR5dEEk
The haunting story of THE GIVER centers on Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. The film is based on Lois Lowry’s beloved young adult novel of the same name, which was the winner the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.
