Is The Giver Appropriate for Children?

This book would be a good tool to use in a high school classroom as I'm sure it would create many questions that students would like to discuss but many of the issues are sensative ones.  Such as:  the release of the newborn, the release of the elderly, and taking pills to prevent stirrings.  I think the detail that the author goes into in describing the murder of the newborn is too much for many "children" to be exposed to.  The release of the elderly seems like it may send the message to some students that older people can not contribute to society and that's something that we don't want taught to our children.  The fact that they take pills to prevent "stirrings" sends the message that there is something wrong with the changes many "children" that read this book are going through.  This would be counterproductive since most schools go out of their way to make sure that adolecents know that what they go through is normal.  Anyway, I think that any child that reads this book should have an adult to talk about the issues that are brought up in this book.
 

- Michael Radke,  November 17, 1999