Messenger

     For this week, I read Messenger by Lois Lowry and started Son, also by Lois Lowry.  These are the 3rd and 4th novels in The Giver Series, preceded by The Giver and Gathering Blue.  Let me just start by saying that The Giver is possibly my favorite book ever.  I read it for the first time in 5th grade, and I was immediately obsessed.  Of course, Lois Lowry never disappoints and Messenger was right up there with The Giver for me.  
     I love the style with which Lowry writes and the themes and symbols she comes up with for her stories.  These novels are great ones to use when introducing the ideas of themes and symbols to middle school students.  I feel like Lowry pretty explicitly states her themes and symbols, but she allows room for the reader to dive deeper into what's behind the story.  I also love how Lowry foreshadows, but not too much which just hooks me even more as a reader and causes me to read her books in one setting.  For middle schoolers, this foreshadowing will keep them interested and wanting to read which is exactly what we want for our students.  
     The aspect of Messenger that I loved the most was the underlying current of the story.  For me, as a Christian, this underlying current was the story of sacrifice very similar to that of Jesus.  The main character in Messenger, Matty, is equipped with a special gift where he can heal things through touch.  This gift in general reminded me of Jesus...I feel as if a lot of the gifts in her novels (seeing beyond) are reminiscent of the powers of Jesus.  Throughout the story, Village, where Matty lives, and Forest, through which Matty travels carrying messages, become "sick" and filled with people who have become bad instead of good.  Ultimately, Matty has to heal the land, which heals Forest and Village, in order for everything to return to good.  This action kills Matty, giving himself up as a sacrifice for the greater good of the world.  I think these kinds of connections can easily be made in a middle school classroom.  Some students with a religious background may see it this way. Some students may get different messages from the novel, like that what we do today greatly affects our future.  Whatever way students interpret the work is perfectly fine because ultimately, the most important message is what each individual finds in it for themselves.