This past weekend my daughter and I had the opportunity to see Lois Lowry’s The Giver performed onstage at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Published back in 1993, The Giver is frequently credited as the first dystopian novel written for children. After the steady stream of amazing dystopian young adult novels published in the last few years, including Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Veronica Roth’s Divergent, LL must be feeling pretty cutting edge. Oh, and did I mention The Giver won the Newbery Medal in 1994? Yeah, she’s feelin’ good.

I read The Giver shortly before writing The Scourge. Seeing the plot play out onstage, I realized how much it influenced my story, particularly the idea of the Exchange. I don’t think I’m alone in ripping off being influenced by The Giver, either. Parts of the dystopian societies created in Divergent and Ally Condy’s Matched were reminiscent of Lowry’s novel.

The stage performance included four adult actors, and four fine young actors, several of whom attend Denver School of the Arts. The set, props, and costumes were minimal and painted in a very neutral gray, which suited the story and enhanced the impact of the occasional use of color. With the help of some AV and lighting to pull off showing the Giver’s memories, and protagonist Jonas’ harrowing experience of receiving those memories, it was all very well done.

I don’t think my daughter understood the full implication of the story, even after reading the novel and seeing the performance. But one thing I love about the best children’s literature is that she doesn’t have to. She can derive her own meaning from this reading. Then she can read the novel again in the coming years and gain an even richer understanding with the benefit of maturity.

Behold the power of the arts.