Loved it! Reminded my of being a kid an reading it in school. Just a great book.

At first I was a bit hesitant to listen to this when a friend loan me her cds. I started to listened to the first cd on my way to work (just so I can say I did listen to it)and needless to say I was hooked. The story made me think alot of our own society. It was very provoking to even think that we could be in this kind of situation ourselve. Not all seen to be what they seem. I had to buy my own copy so that I could share it with my grandchildren. Even brought the next two audio books that follow. I just hope that there will be a 4th book in the making. It left me wanting to know what really happened to Matt. Matt went through so much just to end the way it did. I would recommend these books to anyone.

A fable of what humanity might become if those in charge sought a "perfect" world of efficiency, and homogeneity at the price of the human spirit.

I love this book. From it, we can better understand why it is so important that we know and remember even the simplest things in life.

Characters: Jonas, the main character, is wonderfully developed. His mother was probably the least interesting. Good cast overall.

Scene: Lowry creates a seemingly normal scene that gets more intriguing and more central to the story as the story unfolds. As the story continues, the scene becomes anything but normal.

Plot: A bit unsteady throughout the first half of the book, the plot strengthens in the second half. Still, the plots climax and ultimate resolution are just a little too ideal. For a book that goes to such great lengths to expose such an important lesson, I wanted to see the incarnation and resolution of that lesson be much, much more.

Theme: The theme single-handedly carries this book. The lesson to be learned from Lowry is the basis of this story's renown, and I am sure this book will be used for this lesson many more times to come.

Overall: The weakness of the plot is carries by every other aspect of this book. Unless you need books with incredibly strong plots, I'd highly recommend this book.

This book had the potential of being something really great. The writing is excellent and the premise had countless possibilities, but the author doesn't explore the multitude of scenarios possible in the utopian world she has created, especially after the main character chooses to live outside the "community" - think of the stories that could have been told of the remaining members and how they coped after his "release." The ending was flat. After giving us such great descriptions of life and characters in this new community, she leaves us to use our own imaginations to complete the story. I think the exploration of characters response to the story was missed. I felt cheated and unresolved after listening to it. The narrator is good and does a pleasant job of characteizations - easy to listen to. I also agree that some of the subject matter would be inappropriate or difficult for the less than mature child. I cannot recommend this book.