The 1993 novel by Lois Lowry banned in many schools for its depiction of euthanasia is The Giver.
The Giver follows Jonas, a twelve-year-old boy living in a seemingly peaceful community that has eliminated pain, conflict, war, and most individual choice. When Jonas is selected to become the Receiver of Memory, he learns the history and emotions that his society has suppressed. He also discovers that “release,” presented as a harmless departure, can mean euthanasia.
That revelation is one of the novel’s most disturbing ideas, especially because the community treats the killing of infants, the elderly, and others who do not fit its rules as routine. The book has been challenged or banned in some schools and libraries for its violence, dark themes, suicide, murder, and treatment of euthanasia. Elsewhere, it is a common middle-school assignment.
The Giver won the 1994 Newbery Medal and became the first book in a loose quartet. Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son expand the fictional world, but they are not alternate titles for The Giver. Readers also sometimes mistake the community’s “release” for ordinary exile; understanding its real meaning is central to Jonas’s moral awakening.