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Best this month The Giver


This screen adaptation of the Newbery


Medal-winning young adult novel by Lois Lowry is set in a futuristic society where all war, fear and hatred have been eliminated. But by emphasizing “sameness,” this dys- topia has also done away with color, all memories of the past and emotions such as love. Differences among people have been minimized. At the Ceremony of Advancement, a


young man named Jonas is given the role of “Receiver of Memories.” He trains with “The Giver” who transmits to him the his- tory of the world by showing him both joyful and painful events. Jonas is most surprised by and attracted to the emotion of love. The Giver describes it as “what you feel for someone else that the mind can’t explain and can’t make go away.”


Thank You, God In this beautiful picture book written by J. Bradley


Wigger and illustrated by Jag o, boys and girls aged 3 to 8 can get in touch with the blessings that fill a day from the rising of the sun to the darkness of the night. God is thanked for family and friends who lift our spirits, for our homes that provide us shelter, for meals together that provide nourishment and fellowship, for stories and songs that touch our hearts, for “the big and beautiful” natural world, for all that breathes, for all the beau- ties of the night, and last but not


Author bio:


The Brussats publish the website www.SpiritualityandPractice. com where you can find more information about the items reviewed in this column.


44 www.thelutheran.org


least, for “your love holding us together.” Thank You, God is the perfect gift for a grandpar- ent or another adult to give to a child in order to share appreciation for the boun- ties of God present in ordi- nary days (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, www. eerdmans.com).


By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat


Jeff Bridges (left) plays The Giver and Brenton Thwaites is Jonas.


Directed by Phillip Noyce, this is a cogent morality play


about love, memory and what is needed for a full and rich life (The Weinstein Co., PG-13—for a mature thematic image, some sci-fi action/violence).


Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer


Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer


stands as one of the towering figures in 20th century Christian theology and a pioneer in the formation of dis- cipleship and community. In this sub- stantive biography by Charles Marsh, professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and director of the Project on Lived Theology, we get a vivid sense of this complex clergyman. As a member of the Confessing Church, Bonhoef-


fer struggled when Christian congregations and clergy jumped on the Adolf Hitler bandwagon in Nazi Ger- many. He joined the resistance in 1940 and was arrested in April 1943. During the last two years of his life in prison, he wrote Letters and Papers from Prison. He pre- sented his vision of Christianity animated by humility, faith and sacrifice in “a world come of age.” The Nazis executed him on April 9, 1945, for his part in a conspir- acy to assassinate Hitler. Marsh quotes his last words: “This is not the end for


me; it is the beginning of life” (Alfred A. Knopf, www. knopfdoubleday.com).


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