Lois Lowry continues decade after decade to be one of the most impactful voices in children’s literature. With her latest, she returns to the dystopia genre with a timely novel about stories, censorship, and the power of imagination perfect for middle school readers. And what a better way to kick off your classroom read aloud unit than with an author video from Lois herself! Scroll down to watch (and to download our free educator’s guide) and get your students hooked.
Building 903
In the tradition of her bestselling, award-winning phenomenon, The Giver, Lois Lowry delivers a story about censorship, comfort, complicity, and the radical power of books to open portals and unlock our humanity through our most powerful tool: the imagination.
Twins Tessa and Theo live in a world ruled by a tyrannical leader, where there are no dangers or rebels… or so they’ve been told. In this world, citizens live long lives, and while many hate their leader, they are comfortable and safe. So, when Tessa’s brother disappears, nobody wants to discuss it. But then Miriam, their 135-year-old neighbor bound for the retirement community, slips Tessa a key—not only to her brother’s disappearance, but to the source of all real magic . . . books. As Tessa and her parents begin their search for Theo, Tessa learns that books not only tell us stories—they open portals and unlock our humanity through our most powerful tool: the imagination. Once that truth has been revealed, Tessa won’t be able to rest until she has retrieved her twin and society itself has been transformed.
Two-time Newbery-winner Lois Lowry has crafted a narrative that feels at once prescient and eternal: in this world, the imagination is the revolution. Not only does Building 903 sit in the same resonant space as The Giver Quartet, but it is also a profound addition to Lois’s enduring body of work—and a testament to the strength and value of her voice, vision, and legacy.
Hear from Lois
About the Author
Lois Lowry is the author of more than fifty books for children and young adults, including the New York Times bestselling Giver Quartet and the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, Number the Stars and The Giver.
Praise for Building 903
“Arresting . . . a haunting cautionary tale.”
— Publisher’s Weekly, starred review
“An insightful, thought-provoking story . . . In a time of book bans, this ode to the transcendent power of stories will buoy readers and prompt discussions.”
— Booklist
“[Lowry] shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies.”
— Kirkus
“Lowry’s courage to speak truth to a world that is often reluctant to hear it is a beacon we all can follow, and emulate in the stories we choose to tell.”
— Neal Shusterman, New York Times Book Review