Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
Lois Lowry closes Jonas's first memory with a single, quiet picture: the sled has stopped, Jonas is breathing hard, and his hands are cold from holding the rope. She does not tell us that the ride has ended in a place Jonas has never actually been — she lets the picture do the telling.
Finally the obstruction of the piled snow was too much for the thin runners of the sled, and he came to a stop. He sat there for a moment, panting, holding the rope in his cold hands.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 11 in order. Start with Jonas lying face down on the bed in the Annex, then the cold air and the snow landing on his skin, then the sled going down the hill, then the talk about why snow and hills are gone, then the sunshine memory, then the sunburn memory, and end with the old man asking Jonas to call him The Giver.
Discussion Questions
- What in the story shows you that Jonas's very first memory is really happening inside his body — the cold, the snow, the feel of the rope — and not just being told to him like a story?
- How do you know, from the story, that the old man feels a little bit lighter after he gives the sled memory to Jonas?
+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Soft, cold, white flakes that fall from the sky when the air is very cold.
Item 2
A smooth thing with runners that slides down a snowy hill when you sit on it.
Item 3
A part of the ground that rises up higher than the land around it.
+ 7 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 4 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free