Lois Ann Lowry (; née Hammersberg; born March 20, 1937) is an American writer. She is the author of many books for children and young adults, including The Giver Quartet, Number the Stars, the Anastasia series, and Rabble Starkey. She is known for writing about difficult subject matter, dystopias, and complex themes in works for young audiences.

Lowry has won two Newbery Medals: for Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in 1994. Her book Gooney Bird Greene won the 2002 Rhode Island Children's Book Award.

Many of her books have been challenged or even banned in some schools and libraries. The Giver, which is common in the curricula in some schools, has been prohibited in others.

Life

Lowry was born on March 20, 1937, in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, to Katherine Gordon Landis and Robert E. Hammersberg. Her maternal grandfather, Merkel Landis, a banker, created the Christmas Club savings program in 1910. Initially, Lowry's parents named her "Cena" for her Norwegian grandmother, but upon hearing the news, her grandmother telegraphed and instructed Lowry's parents that the child should have an American name. Helen died of cancer in 1962.

After World War II ended, Lowry moved with her family to Tokyo, Japan, where her father was stationed from 1948 to 1952. From 2014 she was in a relationship with Howard Corwin, a retired physician, until his death in 2025. Lowry acknowledged that it was the most difficult day of her life, and she said, "His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world, but it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth."

As of 2023, Lowry divides her time between a cottage in the Ocean View Retirement Community in Falmouth, Maine and a lovingly-restored 1768 farmhouse in the "lakes region" of western Maine. She remains a writer and speaker. and it was one of the most frequently challenged books of the 1990s. On the impact of The Giver, Lowry said in an interview with School Library Journal, "That's why teachers love using the book. They can find many books with as compelling a plot as The Giver. But they can't find many books that provoke adolescents—who are tough nuts, anyway—to see issues that confront their world and to be passionately interested in them."

During the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020, American publishing company Scholastic Corporation asked Lowry to write a new introduction to Like the Willow Tree, a story of a young girl living in Portland, Maine who was orphaned during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. The book had first been published in 2011, but Scholastic re-issued the book when it was clear that the issues portrayed in the story were newly relevant.

Critical reception and banning

Throughout her works, Lowry has explored several complex issues, including racism, terminal illness, murder, the Holocaust, and the questioning of authority, among other challenging topics. Her writing on such matters has accumulated both praise and criticism. The Chicago Tribune has said a theme running through all of her work is "the importance of human connections."

By 2000, eight of her books had been challenged in schools and libraries in the United States. According to the New York Times in 2012, The Giver had been perennially near the top of the America Library Association's list of banned and challenged books since its publication. In 2020, Time magazine described The Giver as "a staple of both middle school curricular and banned book lists."

When asked by School Library Journal in 2022 about how she feels about her writing appearing on "banned book" lists, she replied: "I read those lists, and my name often on them, with enormous sadness. I read them with a feeling that our children may be losing something very precious as the world of the imagination is increasingly endangered." Her newest book, 'Building 903', to be published by Clarion in September 2026, deals with the banning of books and how loss of literature can bring about the loss of imagination.

According to biographer Joel Chaston, Lowry's most critically acclaimed works are Rabble Starkey, Number the Stars, and The Giver. and the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award in 1991.

In 1994, Lowry was awarded the Regina Medal.

In 2002, her book Gooney Bird Greene won the Rhode Island Children's Book Award.

Lowry has been nominated three times for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books.

In 2007, she received the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her contributions writing for teens. Lowry won the annual award in 2007 for The Giver (published 1993). The citation observed that "The Giver was one of the most frequently challenged books from 1990 to 2000" — that is, the object of "a formal, written attempt to remove a book from a library or classroom." According to the panel chair, "The book has held a unique position in teen literature. Lowry's exceptional use of metaphors and subtle complexity make it a book that will be discussed, debated and challenged for years to come...a perfect teen read." She has been awarded honorary degrees from several universities, including a Doctorate of Letters by Brown University in 2014,St. Mary's College, University of Southern Maine, Elmhurst College, Wilson College, Lesley University, and Colby College.

Works

Children's book series

;The Giver Quartet

  • The Giver (1993)

;Gooney Bird

  • Gooney Bird Greene (2002)
  • The Willoughbys Return (2020)
  • On the Horizon (2020)

Adaptations

  • The Giver (2014), a film directed by Phillip Noyce.
  • The Willoughbys (2020), an animated film based on the book with the same name; released on Netflix and narrated by Ricky Gervais.

Notes

References

  • Lois Lowry's Website
  • Lois Lowry at Library of Congress Authorities —with 61 catalog records