Gathering Blue

by Lois Lowry Published by Walter Lorraine Books 2000 215 Pages Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction Summary: As we enter the scene, Kira, a young girl of about 16 is sitting in the field with her mother's body. The field of leaving is where the dead are laid and watched for four days until their spirits leave. As Kira returns after 4 days, the women of the community have decided they want the property where her cott or home was. It was set on fire to kill what ever disease had killed her mother. Now the women wanted it, and they wanted her dead. So Vandara, the town bully takes her to the council to she what they had to say. With her twisted leg, the women believed her an incapable member of the community and because of this, she should be sent to the field to die. However, the council decides to keep her because of her talent with sewing. She makes beautiful patterns. They want her to work on the robe that is worn at the yearly cerimony every year. She is given a wonderful living space, with running water which she has never seen before. As she begins work she must go into the woods to see the old dyer woman, who would teach her to dye the threads that she sewed with. One day as she is going to the old woman's home, she believes that she is being followed by a beast and she gets to Annabella home as quickly as possible fearing for her life, but unable to run with her leg. As she tells the old dyer what she tought had happened, the woman laughed and told her not to fear, because there were to beasts in the forest. This confused Kira because her father was killed by a beast just before she was born. So when she went home that night she told her caretaker what Annabella had said. Jamison her caretaker, says that Annabella is crazy and that she is old. He says nothing else about it. The next day Kira gets up to find a horribly windy and rainy day. So she does not venture to Annabella's again. The next morning Kira gets up early to go to the dyers, but she runs into her friend who tells her that Annabella had been taken to the field that morning, and Jamison had been there. Kira beings to wonder why this happened. Kira has a friend that lives down the hall from her in housing she was given. His name is Thomas and he was also given a place to live when his parents died when he was just a little boy. One night Thomas hears crying and so he and Kira discover that yet another child was brought to live with them when her parents suddenly died. Kira starts to notice things are starting to get a little hairy. All three of them had wonderful talents and their parents all were killed by freak accidents. Then they were brought here to live with large work loads weighing on their talents. The young girl Jo who had just been brought in didn't even know her parents had died. As the annual celibration comes around they go to watch the singer, which Jo is training to be, sings the song of their past. As Kira watches, she notices that the singer is held by chains around his feet. It was at this point she realized that they were all prisoners to the council. That night her good friend Matt who had been missing for over a week reapeared. He brought Kira gifts. The first was the plant that made it possible to create blue, which did not grow anywhere near their community. The second was her father. Jamison had tried to kill him on a hunting trip. Her father had been taken to the field believed to be dead. He was only blind and he woke to strangers taking him off through the forest. They brought him to a community where those who were broken could heal. He healed but didnt' have any memory for a while. Once he remembered his wife and child it was too late, and he didn't know how to get back, until Matt stumbled into their community. So Matt had brought him back to save Kira. Instead of going with her father that night, they plan to meet in the future, so Kira can bring Thomas and Jo to saftey as well. Her father leaves and she returns to the community that secretly is holding her a slave. My Reaction: I loved this book. My 6th grade teacher read it to us and I have loved it ever sense. I really enjoy the twists and turns of the story line. I couldn't stop reading. The character development is very well done and the setting is very easy to follow. I think it is very well written. Potential problems: there are higher and lower classes in this book. Also, murder and plots are all over this book. Recommendations: I think anyone who likes a good adventure would love this book. It's a fast read becaues it's impossible to put it down. This will get kids reading.