So actually, there could be parents-of-the-parents-of-the-parents-of-the parents?

I have learned over the course of my many years that it is a bad idea, usually, to investigate piteous weeping but always a fine thing to look into a giggle.

Gathering Blue' was a separate book. I wanted to explore what a society might become after a catastrophic world event. Only at the end did I realize I could make it connect to 'The Giver.

It's hard to give up the being together with someone.

I think of every book as a single entity, and some have later gone on to become a series, often at the request of readers.

Making lists of reasons was sometimes a good way to figure things out.

He hunched his shoulders and tried to make himself smaller in the seat. He wanted to disappear, to fade away, not to exist.