50 Fun Facts About Lois Lowry

Which pop star played Rosemary, the Giver's daughter, in the 2014 film of Lois Lowry's The Giver?

Taylor Swift took the small role of Rosemary, the earlier trainee whose failure still haunts the old man. The film reached cinemas in August 2014.

Which actor spent nearly 20 years trying to film Lois Lowry's The Giver before playing the title role himself?

Jeff Bridges first hoped to direct the film with his father Lloyd as the Giver. Lloyd died in 1998, and the project stalled for another 15 years.

Lois Lowry, author of The Giver, was born in 1937 in which place that was then a US territory?

Hawaii was her home only until 1940, when the family left for Brooklyn. It was the first of many moves that followed her father's military career.

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, what does Jonas discover really happens to people who are "released" from the community?

They are killed: Jonas learns the truth from a secret recording in which a newborn twin is given a lethal injection.

To which neutral country do Ellen Rosen and her parents escape by boat in Lois Lowry's Number the Stars?

Sweden lay only a short sea crossing away, and Annemarie's uncle Henrik carries the refugees there in his own boat.

Which British comedian voices the cat who narrates Netflix's 2020 animated film of Lois Lowry's The Willoughbys?

Ricky Gervais narrates as a cat who watches four children plot to send their neglectful parents away for good.

Number the Stars and The Giver each won Lois Lowry which top American prize for children's literature?

The Newbery Medal went to her in 1990 and again in 1994, putting her among the handful of authors who have won it twice.

In which Nazi-occupied capital city do best friends Annemarie and Ellen live in Lois Lowry's Number the Stars?

Copenhagen is home to both girls in 1943, and Lowry visited the city's Resistance Museum while researching the novel.

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, which thrilling first memory does the old man transmit to Jonas during his training?

A sled ride down a snowy hill comes first, and it stuns Jonas because his community has done away with snow, hills and sleds alike.

Which other trade did Lois Lowry practice, later supplying the cover portrait of Number the Stars herself?

Photography was her freelance work in the 1970s, and the girl on the cover of Number the Stars is a portrait she took herself.

What was the profession of Lois Lowry's father, whose military career moved the family around the world?

Dentist Robert Hammersberg spent his working life in uniform, so his daughter changed homes and schools again and again as a child.

In which Asian capital did Lois Lowry attend seventh and eighth grades while her father was stationed there?

Tokyo became the family's home after World War II, and she studied at the American School in Japan before returning to the United States in 1950.

Lois Lowry's banker grandfather Merkel Landis is credited with creating which kind of savings plan?

The Christmas club let customers pay in a little each week and collect the total in time for holiday shopping. Landis launched the first one at a bank in Carlisle.

Lois Lowry was first named Cena after a grandmother with roots in which country, who insisted on an American name?

Norway is the answer: her Norwegian grandmother telegraphed the new parents to demand something American, and so Cena became Lois.

Lois Lowry left which Ivy League university at 19 to marry, long before it gave her an honorary doctorate?

Brown awarded her a Doctorate of Letters in 2014, nearly sixty years after she walked away from its women's college, Pembroke, without a degree.

In which state did Lois Lowry finish her English literature degree in 1972 while raising four children?

Maine is where her children grew up, and she graduated from the University of Southern Maine in Portland before her writing career began.

A short story in which magazine prompted a Houghton Mifflin editor to ask Lois Lowry for a children's book?

Redbook received her story for adults told through a child's eyes, and the editor's suggestion led to her first novel in 1977.

Which novel about sisters Meg and Molly became Lois Lowry's first published book when she was 40?

A Summer to Die drew on the loss of her own older sister Helen, and its opening quarrel over a chalk line dividing a bedroom really happened.

As a teenager, Lois Lowry lived at which military post in New York Harbor, where her father was assigned?

Governors Island was a headquarters when the family arrived in the early 1950s, and she finished high school across the water in Brooklyn Heights.

Lois Lowry's Like the Willow Tree, reissued in 2020, follows a girl orphaned by which historic outbreak?

Spanish flu leaves the heroine an orphan in 1918, and the publisher asked Lowry for a new introduction when the story felt timely again during Covid-19.

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, what name does the community give its plan that removed pain, color and climate?

Sameness trades away color, weather and hills for safety, and it has drained the citizens' lives of deep feeling as well.

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, which name awaits the struggling infant whom Jonas finally carries out of the community?

Gabriel will only receive the name if he grows strong enough to be assigned to a family, and Jonas flees on learning the child is to be released.

In Lois Lowry's novel The Giver, which unusual physical feature does Jonas share with the old man who trains him?

Pale eyes also belong to the one baby who can receive memories, and the 2014 film swapped the trait for a shared birthmark.

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, what is the job title of Jonas's father, who brings a struggling baby home at night?

Nurturer is the title for those who tend the community's newborns, a gentle-sounding job that also includes carrying out releases.

What did Lois Lowry tell fans in 2009 about Jonas, whose fate the ending of The Giver leaves unclear?

He is alive, she joked at the National Book Festival, adding that readers no longer needed to ask her the question.

Which actress played the Chief Elder, leader of the community, in the 2014 film of Lois Lowry's The Giver?

Meryl Streep played the Chief Elder, who in the film orders a drone hunt for Jonas after he flees on a stolen motorcycle.

Composer Susan Kander turned Lois Lowry's The Giver into which kind of stage work, premiered in Kansas City in 2012?

An opera based on the novel was commissioned jointly by companies in Kansas City and Minnesota, and one performance was webcast.

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, which sight does the old man share with Jonas to show him what color is?

A rainbow is passed to Jonas because his community surrendered color itself, along with weather and hills, in exchange for security.

In the final book of Lois Lowry's Giver Quartet, which job is the heroine Claire assigned by her community?

Birthmother Claire bears the baby that Jonas later rescues, and the novel, titled Son, follows her long search for the child.

In Lois Lowry's Number the Stars, what does the packet Annemarie carries to Uncle Henrik's boat contain?

A handkerchief in the packet throws the German tracking dogs off the scent, so the refugees hidden on board are never found.

When soldiers search the Johansens' apartment in Number the Stars, Ellen Rosen pretends to be which dead sister?

Lise had died before the story begins, and a baby photo showing her with dark hair persuades the suspicious soldiers that Ellen belongs to the family.

In Number the Stars, which disease does Mrs. Johansen blame for Great-aunt Birte's death so the casket stays shut?

Typhus is the lie that keeps the lid closed, because there is no dead aunt at all: the funeral is a cover for refugees waiting to flee.

In Lois Lowry's Number the Stars, which keepsake of Ellen's does Annemarie vow to wear until her friend returns?

A necklace with a Star of David pendant turns up after the war, and once her father has mended it Annemarie puts it on.

Which little brother of Anastasia Krupnik proved so popular that Lois Lowry gave him four books of his own?

Sam is born in the first Anastasia book, and readers' requests led to a spin-off that begins by telling his life from a baby's point of view.

What does each chapter of Lois Lowry's Anastasia Krupnik end with, written by Anastasia herself?

A list of her likes and dislikes closes every chapter, and the way it changes charts how the ten-year-old grows up over the story.

Which Lois Lowry novel about a girl sent to live with her grandfather in wartime is her most autobiographical?

Autumn Street follows six-year-old Elizabeth to Pennsylvania while her father is at war, and The New Yorker reviewed it as a novel for adults.

Lois Lowry's storytelling heroine Gooney Bird Greene arrives as a new student in which year of school?

Second grade is where Gooney Bird joins Mrs. Pidgeon's class, and it is the very school year that Lowry herself skipped as a child.

In Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue, orphaned Kira is spared by the council because of her gift for which craft?

Embroidery saves her life: she is set to repair the robe worn by the Singer, though nobody in her village knows how to make blue thread.

In Lois Lowry's fantasy Gossamer, creatures like Littlest One collect fragments of memory to give humans what?

Dreams are woven from the fragments and bestowed at night, while Sinisteeds, dream-givers gone wrong, inflict nightmares instead.

Lois Lowry's 2020 book On the Horizon recalls two World War II attacks and her own childhood in which literary form?

Poetry carries the whole book, a change for a writer known for novels, and it mourns the lives lost in the bombings of 1941 and 1945.

In Lois Lowry's Messenger, which supernatural gift does the young message-bearer Matty discover in himself?

Healing by touch drains Matty each time he uses it, and he finally spends his own life to restore Forest and save his friends.

In the film of Lois Lowry's The Willoughbys, the twin brothers confusingly share which single first name?

Barnaby is the name of both twins, who live with their siblings Tim and Jane under parents too wrapped up in each other to care.

Which actress played the mother of Jonas, opposite Alexander Skarsgård as his father, in the 2014 film of The Giver?

Katie Holmes played the mother, who goes to the Chief Elder to report that her own child has gone missing.

In Lois Lowry's The Giver, which accident do Jonas and the old man plan to fake to cover his escape?

A drowning was meant to limit the search, but Jonas has to drop the plan and run early when he learns a baby is about to be released.

At which yearly event are children in Lois Lowry's The Giver assigned the jobs they will hold for life?

Ceremony of Twelve is where the Chief Elder pointedly skips Jonas, then announces that he has been selected for a rare and honored position.

Lois Lowry was twice a finalist for which international prize, the highest honor for creators of children's books?

The Hans Christian Andersen Award is given every two years, and she was a finalist in 2000 and 2016 and the United States nominee in 2004.

Which filmmaker directed the 2014 screen version of Lois Lowry's The Giver, with Brenton Thwaites as Jonas?

Phillip Noyce directed the film, which made Jonas a 16-year-old and earned a People's Choice nomination for Favorite Dramatic Movie.

Which American Library Association honor for young adult writing did Lois Lowry receive in 2007 for The Giver?

The Margaret Edwards Award honors a lasting contribution to teen reading, and the citation noted how often the novel had been challenged.

In Lois Lowry's Messenger, which sinister newcomer corrupts the kindly people of Village by granting their desires?

Trademaster takes a person's best qualities as payment, and the townspeople grow so selfish that they vote to close their borders.

In Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue, which disability puts Kira in danger in a village that abandons the weak?

A deformed leg would normally mean being left in the Field to die, and only a guardian's defense at her trial keeps Kira in the village.