People in the know say The Giver was the first young adult dystopian novel.

I see all of them. All the colors.

But there's a whole world waiting, still, and there are good things in it.

It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.

That's why they call you Seer. You see more than most.

His mind reeled. Now, empowered to ask questions of utmost rudeness-and promised answers-he could, conceivably (though it was almost unimaginable), ask someone, some adult, his father perhaps: "Do you lie?" But he would have no way of knowing if the answer he received was true.

And they are beginning to realize that the world they live in is a place where the right thing is often hard, sometimes dangerous, and frequently unpopular.