Channeling her childhood: Author Lois Lowry will discuss writing, life in Iowa City

Lois Lowry never thought her 1993 book 'The Giver,” about a boy coming of age in a dystopian future where all strong emotions and controversy have been erased, would be controversial itself. But for a while it was one of the 10 most challenged books in the country, including at least one challenge in Cedar Rapids.

In 2005, Cedar Rapids parents complained about it being taught in a fourth grade accelerated reading course, objecting to non-explicit discussions of sexual 'stirrings” the adolescent hero feels in a dream and a scene where a baby is killed. A Cedar Rapids district Parent Teacher Association Reconsideration Committee debated and ended up recommending the book be kept in elementary school libraries but that teachers should not use the novel for instruction until sixth grade.

'I had no idea that would happen,” Lowry said of the many challenges to her book. 'I'm still surprised when it happens.”

The book is challenged less now than it used to be, she said, as young adult literature rife with violence, such as the Hunger Games series, has become popular. But she sometimes still is called on to write letters supporting the First Amendment and freedom of speech.

'I like to point out to kids that in the world of 'The Giver,” there are no books, and it would have resulted from benevolent people, caring people who love children, saying at some point, ‘You know what, let's remove all books about war, about disease,' ... and they end up with nothing. It's all gone. Literature is gone,” she said.

Lowry, 79, will bring her thoughts Wednesday to the Englert Theatre in Iowa City, as the University of Iowa Lecture Committee's 2016 Distinguished Lecturer.

The author of about 45 books for children and young adults, she is perhaps most well known for 'The Giver,” as well as 1990 novel 'Number the Stars,” which tells a story of two young girls in Nazi-occupied Denmark, and the Anastasia Krupnik series.

When she wrote 'The Giver,” she thought it would be a one book. But almost 20 years after its publication, she has added three sequels, 'Gathering Blue” (2000), 'Messenger” (2004) and 'Son” (2012).

'I wrote them partly in response to readers who had found the ambiguity of the end of ‘The Giver' frustrating. I always liked that ending, but a lot of kids were frustrated by it,” she said.

She said she's not planning to write any others for the series - but then again, she thought the same thing after writing 'The Giver.”

'Finally, I wrote the fourth book, which I thought wrapped everything up. But, of course, the fourth book introduced new characters,” she said.

She said she wasn't sure what she would discuss yet in Iowa City - she tailors each speech she gives to the specific location and audience - but said she often discusses the ways she has incorporated her own life experiences and memories into her books. She said it has never been difficult to put herself into the minds of the children she writes for and about.

She started her career as a journalist, and she remembers interviewing a doctor about medical hypnosis - he told her for the story he would regress her back in age to be 5 years old. She recalled vividly describing a scene to him: standing in her grandmother's backyard, barefoot, feeling the pine needles under her feet and hearing a mourning dove in the tree.

'I told him, ‘I do that every day of my life,'” she said. 'When writing for children, I just transport myself to my own memory at that age. I can transport myself back to being 5 or 7 or 11, so I can look out through those eyes and feel what I felt then.”

She recently published a memoir, 'Looking Back: A Book of Memories,” an updated and expanded edition of an autobiography she first published almost 20 years ago, filled with photos from her life.

'There I am at age 2 or 4 in a black and white photograph, and I know what color my clothes are, because I'm back there, wearing that pink dress,” she said. 'I love being able to do that. It's just a feeling of completion, of continuity - a feeling that child still is part of me, is inside me still, and that I can return to that child whenever I wish.”

IF YOU GO

What: An Evening with Lois Lowry

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday ► (11/16) ◄

Where: The Englert Theatre, 221 E. Washington St., Iowa City

Cost: Free