I loved this book! The writing is wonderful, the characters are simple yet powerful, and the whole setting is so unique and interesting. The only thing I didn't like was the ambiguous ending.

Seeing Jonas discovering the truth about his community was heartbreaking, that loss of innocence that we all experience as we learn about the world growing up. Even the perfect world that Jonas lives in has a dark underside.
I loved how the importance of language was woven into the story- using exactly the correct word for the right thing- and then how it factored into Jonas' realizations about the people around him and the world he thought he knew.
The philosophy about individuality and the freedom to choose were really deep concepts for a children's book, but that is exactly the age when young people begin to fight for their own individuality apart from their parents, and they start to experiment with the responsibility of being able to choose. Wonderfully handled, and a powerfully good message!

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I was especially struck with the scene where Jonas realizes that his father has killed the baby. The horror of that moment for him. Someone he trusted to be kind has done a terrible thing. There's no word for that kind of shock and terror. And obviously, it was wrong to kill the baby. Jonas later gives up everything to save another baby. So why is it that our society looks the other way while thousands of babies are killed every day through abortion? Is our society any better than the one in the book, where they suppress their feelings and kill helpless children? I say no. We ARE living in that society, happily, stupidly following the herd, and doing nothing while babies die. If only there were more like Jonas, who refuse to turn a blind eye, maybe things could change.