Before children frolicked in Hunger Games, and Vampires sparkled like glitter in the Twilight, there was "The Giver," by Lois Lowry. One of the most challenged books of the 1990s, Lowry's novel drew a firestorm of criticism that the book's subject matter was inappropriate for young children. Then it won the 1994 Newbery Medal for children's literature. Almost 20 years later, Lowry has returned to the colorless, emotionless dystopian future that made her a household name for children and adults alike, in a sequel to the novel with "The Son."

"The Giver" has become a touchstone for many middle-school reading lists since its release, and it isn't difficult to figure out why. There aren't many 12-year-olds who can easily parse "Brave New World," "1984," or "Fahrenheit 451," but Lowry channels those books' themes through the voice of children, and places them in contemporary terms they can readily relate to.

Released Oct. 2 "The Son," tells the story of the 14-year-old girl drafted to become the "birth mother" of the rescued infant from the end of "The Giver." The book finally addresses questions raised by the former book's enigmatic ending.

"I discovered most readers were frustrated by the ambiguity of that ending. I would have loved it as a kid myself, to inflict my own imagination on to the story, but that's not how most people felt," she said in an interview with TODAY.com.

Lowry's publishers weren't pressuring her to write a sequel, but she continued to get the same questions from fans who wondered, "What happened to the baby?"

To explain the story behind the infant saved in the original book, Lowry wrote "The Son," which tells the story of a new character, Claire, and her journey to find her lost child.

Since Lowry first wrote "The Giver," there's clearly been an explosion in dystopian and/or fantasy sci-fi literature aimed at young adults and children, though she isn't likely to take credit for it. The author maintains she wasn't trying to create a genre with her books.

"I certainly didn't expect that my book would be held up as the first YA (young adult) dystopian book, as it has been called," she said.

Lowry says her books "The Giver" and "The Son" are set in the future but only because of necessity. "I was focusing on human memory and how it serves us and how it could be controlled," she said. "And because of those factors, it had had to be set in a future time."

The author doesn't associate her writing in the slightest with the likes of "The Hunger Games" or similar titles. "Perhaps that's why 'The Giver' has hung around for so long and has been popular with teachers, because it's introspective and it encourages thought on the part of the readers," she said. "Some of those others, I don't think they lend themselves to the same discussion and thought."

"The Son" isn't the first time Lowry has returned to the world she created in "The Giver," Lowry  released "Gathering Blue in 2000 and "Messenger" in 2004, but those novels were more companion pieces to "The Giver" telling the tales of side characters who lived in the same dystopian world rather than proper sequels.

"The Son" is the true sequel to "The Giver" directly addressing what happened to baby Gabriel after his 12-year-old caretaker, Jonas, escaped with him from their seemingly utopian society where children are born to designated "birth mothers," family units are assigned and you must apply for children, emotion is strictly controlled by pills that suppress desires like romantic love and sexuality, and dreams must be recorded and reported at the breakfast table.

While Lowry sounds like she's finally closed the book on these characters with "The Son," she has a fondness for them like she does her own children.

 "When they become adults and lead their adult lives, you miss having them around," she said. "It's the same with book characters. You know they're fictional but you feel as they're real. You've lived with them for a long time, but you do miss them and think about them like people you know."