Kate DiCamillo On The Power of THE GIVER
Jeff Bridges’s long road to his dream of adapting Lois Lowry’s seminal YA dystopian novel, The Giver (HMH, 1993; winner of the 1994 Newbery Medal) has finally become reality. The movie premiered this week, amid a massive amount of publicity, and opens in theaters tomorrow.
The Huffington Post proclaims that “The Giver Movie Is Quite Different From The Book You Remember … ” while on NPR station WBUR, the author herself says The Giver Stays True To Spirit Of Her Book, and also tells the Washington Post that the cast elevated her original novel.
Good news for that novel, it’s at #3 on the new USA Today best seller list, the highest ever for the book.
From the photos at the premiere, it seems that Lowry was having the most fun of anyone there.
EarlyWord Kids Correspondent, Lisa Von Drasek, got to see an early screening and calls the movie “spectacular.” Joining her for the screening was Kate DiCamillo (two time Newbery winner and National Ambassador for Children’s Literature), who said,
“The Giver is a triumph for book-lovers and movie-goers. It is a movie that reminds us of the power of memory and books and stories and love. It shows us the privilege and the pain and joy of being alive, fully human.”