The Giver

This Newberry Award Winner was suggested as a pick by a friend. Twelve year old Jonas lives in seemingly perfect world. Each family has one boy and one girl, everyone trains for their career (selected for them by the elders), everyone marries a suitable spouse selected by the elders. Jonas' world begins to show its cracks when he learns he has been selected to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Jonas comes to realize that not only has his society eradicated hunger, war and poverty, but has also removed the pain from their lives, going so far as to medicate them to tamp down any sexual or violent impulses. As Jonas, one of the few people not so stifled, learns, pain is what brings life much of it color.