Lois Lowry

BIO

Whether she’s writing comedy, adventure, or poignant, powerful drama --- from ATTABOY, SAM! and ANASTASIA KRUPNIK to NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER --- Lois Lowry’s appeal is as broad as her subject matter and as deep as her desire to affect an eager generation of readers. An author who is “fast becoming the Beverly Cleary for the upper middle grades” (The Horn Book Magazine), Lois Lowry has written over 30 books for children and young adults and is a two-time Newbery Medal Winner.

Lois Lowry was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and attended junior high school in Tokyo, Japan. Her father was a dentist for the U.S. Army and his job entailed a lot of traveling. Lowry still likes to travel.

At the age of 17, Lowry attended Brown University and majored in writing. She left school at 19, got married, and had four children before her 25th birthday. After some time, she returned to college and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maine.

Lois Lowry didn’t start writing professionally until she was in her mid-30s. Now she spends time writing every single day. Before she begins writing a book, she usually knows the beginning and end of her story. When she’s not writing, Lowry enjoys gardening during the spring and summer and knitting during the winter. One of her other hobbies is photography, and her own photos grace the covers of NUMBER THE STARS, THE GIVER and GATHERING BLUE.

Lois Lowry has four children and two grandchildren. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Back to top.   

INTERVIEW

February 2008

Lois Lowry has written over 30 books for young readers, including the Newbery Award-winning novels NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER. In this interview with Teenreads.com's Alexis Burling, Lowry recalls the painful yet intriguing event that inspired her 2006 work of fiction, GOSSAMER (now available in paperback), and explains what "stereotypes" her characters are meant to represent. She also draws parallels between one of the book's main themes and that of a previous title, and shares a few objects from her own home to which her fictional dreamgivers would pay special attention.

Teenreads.com: Was there any specific moment, or collection of moments, that sparked your imagination and inspired you to write GOSSAMER?

Lois Lowry: I think we are all fascinated by the world of dreams. Dreams are so much a part of ourselves, but so mysterious and other-worldly and I’m sure we’ve all often wondered about the origin of them.

A number of years ago, my mother was recovering from a stroke. For five months her mind was somewhere else. She didn’t know me, or my brother, and she often laughed or wept at things that we could only guess at. One time, when we visited her in the nursing home where she was being cared for, she cried and cried and kept saying, “I’m so sad. Dorothy’s baby has died. Poor, poor Dorothy, Her baby has died.” Well, my brother and I recognized the reference. My mother’s best friend back when Jon and I were probably 7 and 13 was named Dorothy, and she had, in fact, lost a baby very tragically. But it had been 50 years earlier. So my brother asked her: “Mother, are you actually seeing Dorothy? Or are you just remembering her?”

She looked at him as if he were an idiot. Then she said impatiently, “In the dreamworld, it doesn’t matter.”

My mother recovered from the stroke; her mind returned, and she lived several more years. But she didn’t remember those five months. And though we asked her, she could not remember that moment when she wept for Dorothy…or anything about the dreamworld she had apparently entered for a time.

But it has always haunted me, and I have wondered about it for years.

TRC: Fastidious’s annoyance with The Littlest One stems mostly from her playful nature and curious mind. She asks too many questions and seems to derive great joy from learning, while Fastidious would much rather her just do her job in silence. What does Fastidious represent for you? How about The Littlest One?

LL: Well, I suppose they could both be called stereotypes, though I hope I didn’t write them in a way that makes the reader yawn and think, “Oh, that character again.”

Littlest is me as a child, and my own children when they were young, and my grandchildren today: all of us, actually, when we were still lively and curious and interested in everything, and eager to learn. And Fastidious is every uptight, impatient, tired older person who just doesn’t want to deal with that eagerness and energy any more.

TRC: “Dissolving” is a lot like meditating, is it not? It’s about focusing on your form until your “self” disappears. Do you meditate? If so, what does it do for you?

LL: I don’t. Every time I’ve tried to mediate, I find myself thinking about recipes or movies or whether I remembered to feed my dog. But I can see that it might be much the same…wiling your “self” to disappear.

TRC: The process of “touching” is fascinating on many counts --- picking up fragments of memories, smells, feelings, etc. that have become embedded in objects over time. What objects in your house would be ideal for “touching”?

LL: My house --- or houses, actually, since I have two --- would be a real treasure trove for a dreamgiver. So much of what I value and keep around me is related to the past, to places I’ve been, people I love. I have the American flag that covered my son’s casket after he was killed in the military. I have a bracelet made of beads strung by a grandchild. A diamond ring that was my grandmother’s. A coffee mug from an elementary school I visited in Germany. And a lovely small basket given to me in Indonesia. Countless things important to me from my past.

TRC: Another veiled metaphor… Why is “delving,” or touching too deeply, caustic to both the dreamgiver and the dreamer? Is there a larger meaning to this?

LL: A psychiatrist, of course, would say that it is important to delve painfully into troubling things. But the dreamgivers’ task is to collect the fragile mementos that bring joy. To burrow too deeply into the pain would be to invite the nightmares in. So, for example, Littlest can touch the photo of the young soldier, of his smile, and bring a memory of a kiss into the dream of the woman. If she had lingered…delved…she would have had to encounter his terrible death.

TRC: From the beginning, John is dead set on hating his new caretaker. He wants a TV, a Game Boy, or any other distraction so that he doesn’t have to think or feel. But throughout the story, he slowly learns to trust the woman and grows to love his new surroundings. What can readers learn from his change in character? From her unconditional love?

LL: John is, simply, frightened, because he has been damaged by people he loved. So, he mistrusts love, and perhaps with good reason. It will take him a long time to recover. The woman gives him that time. She doesn’t pressure him, doesn’t judge him; she only loves him. It helps him begin to heal.

TRC: Why didn’t you give “the woman” a name?

LL: That’s a question I have asked myself. I wrote the book during a summer when I was alone in my old farmhouse in Maine. Alone, except for my dog. So the house in the book is mine, and the woman, really, is me, though I don’t share her sad history or her loneliness. But I think that’s why I didn’t name her. I wanted to keep her as my own.

TRC: Part of GOSSAMER deals with child and spousal abuse, and while that part of the story is certainly heavy, it’s almost as if it’s more of a whispering backdrop to the tale. Why did you construct the novel this way?

LL: The story is about the healing power of imagination and memory. Of course I had to show someone being affected by that power, and so I had to include his history and that of his poor mom. But I didn’t want it to be a book about those issues, really. I wanted to show the two of them, John and his mother, emerging --- and to show the reader that such healing can happen. That’s really what I focused on.

TRC: You’ve won the Newbery Medal twice --- for THE GIVER and NUMBER THE STARS. Did receiving those awards change your outlook on writing? Your writing process?

LL: No. I write a lot of different kinds of books, and I go about them in different ways. Some, of course, based on historical settings and events, needed research. Others just flow from my imagination. That two of them --- which was very different in style --- won major awards has been a wonderful and gratifying thing, but it has not really changed at all how I go about creating a book.

TRC: In your Newbery speech for THE GIVER, you said: “But I’ve never been a writer of fairy tales. And if I’ve learned anything through that river of memories, it is that we can’t live in a walled world, in an ‘only us, only now’ world where we are all the same and feel safe. We would have to sacrifice too much. The richness of color and diversity would disappear [and] feelings for other humans would no longer be necessary. Choices would be obsolete.” Would you agree that there are elements of this in GOSSAMER as well?

LL: The thing that is intrinsic to both THE GIVER and to GOSSAMER is the concept of the way humans care about each other, their need and capacity to do so. It is what saddens Littlest at the end of GOSSAMER --- her realization that she is not human, and that love is not supposed to be a part of her make-up. It is what propels Jonas, in THE GIVER, to flee his community, the awareness that he comes to that the people there are not capable of love.

TRC: In many of your speeches, you talk a lot about circular journeys, both for your characters and for yourself. Did you go through a particular “circular journey” while writing GOSSAMER?

LL: My journey is long and ongoing. Each book I write, I suppose, is a particular smaller journey as well; and now, more recently, I have adapted GOSSAMER to the stage, so I am in the midst of that theatrical journey, which is a fascinating one.

TRC: Your readers are in touch with you via e-mail. Are there any e-mails in particular about GOSSAMER that you can share with us?

LL: Sadly, I don’t keep e-mails because I get SO MANY! And I am not remembering any particular one about GOSSAMER, though there have been some classrooms that have dealt with dreams, and kids who have listed the things a dreamgiver would “touch” for them…as I just did.

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

Back to top.   

AUTHOR TALK

May 2006

Lois Lowry is a prolific figure in children's and young adult fiction, having written such classic novels as THE GIVER, GATHERING BLUE, MESSENGER and NUMBER THE STARS. In this interview, Lowry describes the inspirations behind her latest book, GOSSAMER, and its diminutive character, Littlest. Read on to learn more about Lowry's dreams, her fascination with how young people see themselves, and what she has in store for her readers.

Question: What were your inspirations for GOSSAMER?

Lois Lowry: I'm so interested, always, in how the bits and pieces of our lives go together, how they form a narrative, and how important they are to us. My son died when his little girl was not yet two. She's twelve now, and she asks me often, "Tell me stories about my dad when he was little." She giggles at the when-your-dad-was-naughty stories. But she knows intuitively that the narrative of his life is also a valuable part of her own.

Of course, I dealt with that, the importance of our memories, in a book called THE GIVER, and in the personal memoir called LOOKING BACK, as well. But thoughts about memory were haunting me, still, when I sat down to write the book that would be called GOSSAMER.

Q: Do you remember your dreams?

LL: Some. Especially those that recur. I even have a favorite, in fact: so much so that when it recurs I actually think --- while deep asleep --- "Oh, great, this dream again! I love it!" But at the same time, I suppose that, like most people, most of what I dream disappears on waking. If that weren't true, the whole concept of dreams would not be so endlessly fascinating and mysterious.

I'd tell you what that favorite dream is, but actually it intrigues me enough that it might find its way into a book. So I don't want to talk about it!

Q: Names are significant in many of your books: THE GIVER, MESSENGER, GATHERING BLUE. In GOSSAMER, you choose descriptive words (Littlest, Thin Elderly, Fastidious) instead of traditional names. Can you talk a little about why you did this?

LL: In the first draft of GOSSAMER, Littlest actually had a "real" name. Along the way, it disappeared: it no longer felt right, it felt too human. I began to perceive that the creatures (for lack of a better term) --- the dream-givers --- would be more ethereal, would lack some of the more prosaic human elements: names, houses, pets, and hobbies. Clothing, too, I suppose! They are really unencumbered except for spirit. I suppose they could be described as pure spirit.

Q: Is there a particular character from GOSSAMER that you identify with the most?

LL: Well, in writing GOSSAMER, I created a number of different characters, and being a woman about the same age --- and one who lives with a dog! --- I suppose I identify most closely with the character called, simply, the woman. But although I like "the woman" --- and although I rooted for the boy, John, to become whole and happy --- the character who most interested me was the one called Littlest.

I've always been fascinated by the concept of the very young child's perception of self. I remember a time eight years ago when my granddaughter, then four, explained to me very politely and solemnly, because she suspected I had forgotten, "I'm only little."

More recently, a younger grandson, also four, said to me with a sense of wonder, "My head is just so full of thoughts."

Littlest, in GOSSAMER, reminds me of my own small grandchildren, and of all little ones whose heads are so full of thoughts, and who are so curious and intent on figuring out their place in the world.

Q: Do you think you'll write more books featuring Littlest?

LL: Every time I finish a book I feel as if I have said goodbye to it, to its characters and their lives. Right now I feel that way about GOSSAMER, and about Littlest. I left her content, increasing in wisdom and maturity. Why revisit her? But even as I say that --- and believe it to be true --- I recall that I said that of earlier books, earlier characters, and then after time passed, began to yearn to be with them again. So I've learned not to be overly certain. About anything!

Q: What are you working on now?

LL: Well, right now I'm working on some more Gooney Bird. She has become quite popular in the early grades: younger readers than my usual. And it's such fun, moving back into her classroom with its merriment and confusion.

Copyright © 2006 Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

Back to top.   

AUTHOR TALK

April 2004

In this interview Lois Lowry discusses why she wrote MESSENGER, the difficult decision she made that impacts one of the main characters in the story and the universal appeal of her Newbery Award-winning novel THE GIVER.

Q: What inspired you to write MESSENGER?

LL: It's a tough decision to pick up something that you thought you had put down permanently. More than that . . . I had said, often and in public, that I was not going to "explain" what had happened to Jonas at the end of THE GIVER.

But the reading audience was dissatisfied with that. People didn't like the ambiguity of THE GIVER's conclusion. And they let me know it, in hundreds --- probably thousands, by now --- of letters and e-mails.

Now, I don't generally cater to the reading public's whims and wishes. But readers' reaction affected me, I think, in that it made me want to sort out things for myself. I did it first, in GATHERING BLUE, with a brief reference to Jonas. But then I was left with a second ambiguous ending . . . and another character I loved and didn't want to let go of: Matt. So I simply decided to follow Matt as he moved on in his life, and to portray the others --- like Jonas, Gabe, and Kira --- in the places they had made for themselves.

That should do it, I think; and "trilogy" has a nice ring to it, a feeling of a boxed set and some finality. (But someone has recently asked me about the mysterious character named Trademaster, and whether maybe I would like to write more about him. Oh, dear.)

Q: Was it especially challenging to write MESSENGER knowing that it was a companion to THE GIVER (1993) and GATHERING BLUE (2000), both of which received much critical acclaim?

LL: When I'm working on something, I think of it as a thing unto itself. Of course, I used some characters from previous books in MESSENGER. But the story is new, the setting is different, and the characters have grown older and changed. So to me it was an individual book.

There will always be readers, critics, and so on, who make comparisons. And those who have loved a book and simply want the same book again --- they are bound to be disappointed.

But I don't do that myself when I'm writing.

Q: A number of readers ask you about Christian imagery in THE GIVER and also in GATHERING BLUE. How do you respond to this question?

LL: What I like about provocative books in general is that they allow readers to bring their own beliefs --- political as well as religious --- to the fiction, to fit them in, to find the symbolism. That has happened with THE GIVER and GATHERING BLUE, and I'm quite certain it will happen again with MESSENGER, perhaps to a greater degree because there is clearly a sacrificial element to it at the end. Christian? Maybe, maybe not. A lot of Jewish people, I know (because I hear from them), find their own beliefs validated in THE GIVER. And I've heard the same from a number of Mormons, and a few Buddhists. There is a universality to theology, I think, certain primal symbols, so a story need not be exclusive to one faith.

When readers ask me, I tell them that whatever they find in the book is what is there. When they ask me my religion, I tell them that it is irrelevant.

Q: One of the main characters in MESSENGER does not survive. Was it difficult for you to make this decision?

LL: A long time ago I wrote a book called AUTUMN STREET, in which one of the principal characters --- a little boy named Charles --- is killed near the end. I knew from the beginning pages that Charles was going to die. I knew it when he first appeared, feisty and funny, and it was always looming there ahead of me as I wrote. What I didn't know was how hard it would be, how painful, to write of it.

The same was true with MESSENGER. I knew what the end would be when I wrote the beginning. Growing to love the character, as one does while writing, doesn't change the ending. But the day of writing the ending is tough. You mourn.

Q: THE GIVER, GATHERING BLUE, and MESSENGER are different from your other novels in that they are more fantastical and are considered by some to be science fiction. Do you enjoy writing in this genre, or do you prefer writing more realistic fiction?

LL: I like writing different kinds of things. I loved doing the bits of historical research for NUMBER THE STARS and THE SILENT BOY. I loved speaking in the voice of a dog when I wrote STAY! KEEPER'S STORY. And I find it great fun to do fantasy because my imagination gets to go out and play.

What I would find dull would be writing in the same genre again and again.

Q: Your book THE GIVER has been chosen by several community reading programs around the country. Why do you think these communities are attracted to THE GIVER?

LL: THE GIVER is unique as a community read because its appeal crosses generations; it is a book that eighty-year-olds can discuss with twelve-year-olds, and the issues it raises are relevant to them and everyone in between. It is really remarkable to speak to an audience in a town that has all read the same book . . . and to hear adults listen with respect to the questions that children ask, and vice versa.

The nice thing is that it's not my words or opinions or ideas being inflicted on them. It is that the book provokes thought and discussion; it provides an avenue for communication and for people of all ages to share their own ideas.

Q: What are you working on now?

LL: I never talk a whole lot about something in progress. Not because I am being coy . . . or secretive . . . but because talking about something before it's complete somehow makes it dissipate, and then I have trouble grabbing it back.

But I can tell you that I am doing a lighthearted book, a bit of a romp, with a lot of stock characters, mistaken identities, romance, villains with black underwear and bad breath, and a happy ending all around.

© Copyright 2004, Walter Lorraine Books/Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Photo © Stephen Sheffield

• Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.

Back to top.   

PAST INTERVIEW

September 29, 2000

Renown writer Lois Lowry still manages to stun new readers with her classic award-winning novel about the darker side of humanity, THE GIVER. In addition, many fans know her from the lightheartedness of her "Anastasia" series. Recently Lowry has published what she calls the companion book to THE GIVER, a novel called GATHERING BLUE, about a young weaver named Kira whose lame leg almost causes her death. Join Teenreads writer Tammy Currier in this new interview with a beloved author.  

TBB: Before your futuristic Newbery Award-winning YA novel, THE GIVER, you were best known for your humorous series about Anastasia Krupnik. What inspired you to take a look at the darker side of human behavior?

LL: I have always alternated between serious and not-so-serious books. AUTUMN STREET is perhaps one of my darkest novels and it appeared in 1980 right after the first ANASTASIA book had been published. So exploring the grittier parts of human existence is not new to me, or my readers.

TBB: In THE GIVER and NUMBER THE STARS, you explore the dangers of repression and the role of human decency, among other serious issues. In GATHERING BLUE, your most recent YA novel, you take on the role of the artist in society. In your opinion, what role does the artist play?

LL: The artist is always the "outsider" in mainstream society --- the one who peeks beyond the edges of the known --- the one who explores, who takes risks. Often, I think, this is not a role one chooses --- but rather the role that somehow one is chosen for. This is true for Kira in GATHERING BLUE.  Her talent appears, unbidden.  Then having been gifted in that way, as true artists are, she has the choice of how to use the gift, as true artists always do.  Some sell out and opt for the easy success, as Kira could.  Others choose the harder way --- the way that may make a greater difference in the world.

TBB: Both GATHERING BLUE and THE GIVER are set in the future. What about the future intrigues you? Frightens you?

LL: The power that we have as humans to shape the future is both intriguing and frightening.  It is only in my lifetime that man has actually had the power to destroy the earth.

TBB: Your view of the future seems quite apocalyptic. Did your experiences as a child in post-World War II Japan influence your vision of the future in any way? If so, how? In other words, were you influenced by scenes of the destruction inflicted on Nagasaki and Hiroshima?   

LL: I was a child of the post WW II generation.  Just as I came into awareness (I was born in 1937; I was eight years old when the war ended) it was into a world that included both the atomic bombs, and the destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki...and at the same time, the newsreels showing us the horror of what was being revealed in Germany: the death camps and the tragedies there.  These were the images of my early adolescence --- compounded by the fact that I moved to a still-devastated Japan when I was nearly 11.

At the same time I have always been keenly observant of life around me.  So although I had grown up during a horrible war, and with an awareness of enemies; suddenly I was living in the midst of honorable, gentle, and courteous Japanese people.  I began to think about such discrepancies when I was very young.  I have never stopped thinking about them.

One of my sons married a German woman.  My little granddaughter, now almost seven, lives in Germany, is a citizen of two countries, and speaks both languages.  When I was her age, seven, I was taught to think of Germans as evil.  My grandchild's German grandmother, her "oma," who is my age, hid crying in a basement while Americans bombed her village.  Now she and I drink coffee together and watch our granddaughter, who knows nothing of war or evil yet, play with her dolls --- and we wonder what the future will hold for her, and how we can keep her safe from the kind of hatred and fear we both knew as children.

TBB: Your novel, THE GIVER, has been categorized as science fiction. Do you spend much time reading science fiction and fantasy? If so, do you have any favorites?

LL: Oddly, science fiction and fantasy have never been favorites of mine as reading choices.  I've enjoyed some Ursula Le Guin very much and I liked Philip Pullman's THE GOLDEN COMPASS.  But it is not a genre that I seek out as a reader and it surprises me when I find myself writing in that mode.

TBB: What were the books that influenced you most as a child?

LL: Realistic fiction was always my favorite. I loved A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN when I was 11; and a little earlier, about age 9, I read (actually my mother read to me, and I later reread to myself) THE YEARLING, and have long listed it as a favorite.  
  
TBB: Despite being lame, your main character, Kira, is wonderfully talented with a needle and thread. Like her, you were also very talented from a young age. You taught yourself to read and write by the age of three and knew you wanted to be a writer in elementary school. How did you make that desire a reality?

LL: I have always loved creative arts of various sorts.  It's true that I wrote when I was young, and aspired to be a writer, but I also painted and drew.  Later I studied photography.  I majored in writing in college but, because I married young and had children, four of them, quite young (also a creative act!) I had to put my own aspirations on hold for a while.  Actually, I think it was a good thing.  By the time I was ready to begin writing, I had absorbed a certain amount of living, with all the highs and lows, the disappointments, griefs, and triumphs --- so that I had more experience from which to write.

TBB: Kira's medieval-like world is very well drawn, and the scenes with Anabella, the elder weaver and dyer, are especially vivid. Do you do any weaving, embroidery, or fiber dyeing yourself?

LL: When my two daughters were little girls I made most of their clothes, as well as my own.  Now I confine myself to knitting.  All of my grandchildren get stuck with grandma's sweaters. (My teenage grandson wishes I could make them look like Tommy Hilfiger's.)

TBB: If not, what kind of research did you do?

LL: I simply went to books and taught myself what I needed to know for the GATHERING BLUE.  When I had finished writing, I gave the books about dyeing to the young girl who was the model for the book jacket; she was interested in giving it a try.  I would be, too, if I had more time!

TBB: Rumored to be a sequel to THE GIVER, GATHERING BLUE seems more like an alternative take on the future of human society. Will we hear from Jonah or Kira again?

LL: I always said I wouldn't write a sequel to THE GIVER and I don't feel that I did.  I've been calling GATHERING BLUE a companion volume.  But I do feel as though there will probably be a third book, making a trilogy.  Not right away.  But after a while I will begin to feel it nudging at me.  Ideas will start to appear in my head, and then they'll begin to feel urgent, and then I will start writing.  That's the way it works.  Kind of magically.

TBB: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers out there?

LL: I always tell aspiring writers that reading is the best way, maybe the only way, to learn to write well.

Thank you again Lois!

• Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.

© Copyright 1997-2008, Teenreads.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.