About the Author: Lois Lowry

Lois was Born in Hawaii, later moved to New York, then to Pennsylvania and finally to Toyko. Eventually back to the USA settling in Maine.

Married at the age of 19 and had four children. Divorced after 21 years. Found a new partner, who died and now is settled with someone new.

Her education consists of college and university.

"My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings."

"The Giver, and the three books that follow it and make it a quartet, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son, take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though they are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment."