After I raved about The Giver to people smart enough to have read it years ago, I was thrilled when they told me it was actually the first in a loosely-connected trilogy that includes Gathering Blue and The Messenger.

Gathering Blue is the story of Kira, a lame (as in she was born with a bad leg) girl newly orphaned. As in The Giver, the reader discovers the world and community Kira lives in through her eyes. As an orphan, Kira may soon be kicked out of the village. The first few chapters treat the reader to a court hearing of sorts determining if and how she should stay. This world is quite different from the world of The Giver, and dare I say, it's not quite as interesting. Granted, it had a lot to live up to.

Ultimately, Gathering Blue, is good, but it's not great. The novel seemed to divide itself into three parts in my mind: the beginning, where the reader learns the setting; the middle, where the action is rather subdued; and the end, which is once again intriguing, if not riveting as The Giver was.

Perhaps it's not fair to compare Gathering Blue to The Giver. If I didn't know they were related, I wouldn't have spotted the connections between the two. (The connections apparently come in The Messenger, which features characters from both books). It's still an interesting read, and young science fiction fans will likely delight in it. Gathering Blue doesn't have the cross-genre appeal of The Giver, and it doesn't have a powerful enough narrative to intrigue readers of all ages, but upper elementary students would be the ideal audience for it. ( )

Another dystopian novel for ages 10 and up, this one is set in a post-“Ruin” world, where most of the people have regressed to primitive living, and children with physical flaws, like the heroine Kira, are supposed to be left out as babies for “the beasts” to claim. Kira, recently orphaned, is about to lose everything she has—including her life--to fellow villagers. Then the community’s leaders, due to her talent in embroidery, choose her to live in the one building, the Council Edifice (which, from its description, appears to have contained a church) that withstood the Ruin. She is to work on mending and adding to the decorations on the ceremonial robe worn by the "Singer" each year when performing the story of the Ruin at the village “Gathering."

In her new home, Kira meets Thomas, the carver a few years older than herself, working on the Singer’s staff, and Jo, the little girl being trained to replace the aging Singer some day. Like the similarly-aged Jonas in Lowry’s Newbery-winning The Giver, Kira, with the help of a rambunctious “tyke” named Matt, discovers the secrets of her society and makes a choice that will change her life, and perhaps those of the villagers.

This book has some messages about the role of artists in society. Lowry creates an interesting culture where the number of syllables in a person’s name increases as s/he ages. The Ruin Song has some telling words (pages 170-172 in the hardbound edition):
Burn, scourged world,
Furious furnace,
Inferno impure-…

Ravaged all,
Bogo tabal
Timore toron
Totoo now gone…

...“I believe it tells the names of lost places.”

… and if you look carefully, you can identify them.

Actress Katherine Borowitz reads the audiobook quietly and calmly, matching the detached tone of the story, showing emotion only when expressing Kira’s thoughts or memories of her mother, or the rough Fen dialect of Matt.

This book is linked to The Giver, but only near the end, and it isn't necessary to have read it before reading Gathering Blue.

Original review at Bookin' It. ( )

Original review at The Little Bookworm

Kira is orphaned, but the village is not eager to keep her. With her twisted leg, she is considered worthless. After a dispute with a local woman, Kira is taken in by the Council of Edifice for her threading talent. She is given the task of fixing the Singer's robe, but she is missing one thing: the color blue. In the course of restoring the robe and finding blue, Kira learns some shocking secrets about her village.

Kira's village is so cruel and horrible and they don't even realize it. The casual cruelty that they employ to dispose of the sick and the weak as well as the way they treat each other is sickening. I will say that this was a very good book, just not as good as The Giver. The Giver has a quiet creepiness about it so when the twist came, it was truly shocking. The callousness of the village does not lend itself to any surprise. I almost expected it when the shocker was revealed so it was less than astonishing. Other than that, Gathering Blue is an excellent book, very well written with beautiful imagery. I hoping The Messenger will clear up some of the questions and give me more on Jonas. ( )

Lois Lowry writes a haunting story about a futuristic dystopia society where it is survival of the fittest and chaos rules. A small group of men known as the ‘Council of Guardians’ have kept this society struggling to survive gripped in fear with stories of beasts in the surrounding forests, of mysterious deaths and a general lack of resources. Kira, the protagonist had never seen running water before and had to be shown how the bath and toilet worked when she was moved into the Council Edifice. Children in this society are viewed as a nuisance and parents take care of themselves first leaving their children to fend for themselves. Lowry invokes readers to examine closely human morals and ethics that are present in today’s society. Readers are compelled to analyze the positives and negatives of human relationships. Lowry teaches us all that at times it is necessary to challenge the decisions of those in authority as things are not always what they seem to be. ( )

As part of a trilogy and following "The Giver", I had high expectations for this book. Sadly, I was a little disappointed. I didn't like that the book built up to the end and was left open ended. I do have the third book here and found that the third book takes off where Gathering Blue left off, so maybe we will get an ending. The Giver was a great book and maybe Lowry should have stopped with that one! I hope to be proven wrong by the time I finish "Messenger". ( )

good book so far.

Interesting speculation on what society might look like after cataclysms and having to start over. I don't like that Ms. Lowry keeps ending her books mid-story - I want to know 'what happens next!!' ( )

I read this book, as one of the first required books in jr. high school, and I still love it. In most of the school books I read, the lesson from the book is mostly obvious, but this book was different. I was never able to figure out why we read this book. It is a very obvious fiction book, with a story that is hard to imagine ever happening. The originality of the idea for the plot is what really makes the book as amazing as it is. I still have yet to find a book that matches Lowry's creativity.

Kira, born crippled must defend her life when her mother dies. Her community despises the handicapped and abandons them to die from exposure and wild animals when it is determined that a person can't contribute to society. She is saved by a mysterious man named Jamison, when it is discovored that she has a talent for weaving and embroidery. After being sent to live amongst the council to embroider the future, she realises that in spite of the comfort and great food, she is a prisoner. Her greates challenge comes when she meets her long lost father and must decide wether to escape with him or to stay and fight for a better future.

2nd part of 'The Giver' trilogy. Book about the handicapped and their place in a utopian society. Best for Grades 6th and Up

School Library Journal, v. 46 no8 (August 2000) p. 186

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, v. 54 no3 (November 2000) p. 111

Kira is a girl with a twisted leg unfortunately born in a community which casts out babies born with physical defects by leaving them in the fields to die. Kira was lucky in that her mother stood up for her, supported by her grandfather, who was powerful enough to spare Kira's life. When Kira's mother dies, though, leaving her an orphan, her life is again called into question by the Council of Guardians that rules her community. The only thing that she can provide in her defense is her extraordinary skill at weaving and sewing. She is sure she will be sentenced to certain death, but she soon realizes that the Guardians have plans of their own.

This was listed as a sequel to The Giver, which I loved, so I was surprised to find that this could really have been a standalone book. Kira's story has nothing to do with Jonas' story, except for the fact that they both happen to live in dystopias. Because I read The Giver first and have since re-read it several times, I thought Gathering Blue paled in comparison. Whereas Jonas' community had all sorts of interesting rules and routines and systems for managing conflict, Kira's community seemed simple, almost crude. I think maybe Lowry meant to emphasize two different extremes towards which a world could go (Jonas' symbolizing absolute control and technological progress and Kira's symbolizing regression), but the descriptions of Kira's community itself seemed lacking in that creative spark that Lowry possessed in abundance when writing The Giver.

I was surprised by how quickly the novel ended. I read this in one sitting, and it was not enough. This was a book I would have like to see go on for a little longer. Unlike Jonas, whose unique job assignment gives him the opportunity to figure out very early on what is wrong with his world, Lowry takes a different course with Gathering Blue and presents it as a mystery. The pieces don't fall into place for Kira until the very end of the book, at which point she makes a decision... and the story ends there. Lowry left The Giver open-ended, too, but this was less than open-ended. The story takes the entire book to build up, peaks, then plummets to below sea level, and it was just too abrupt and jarring for me. Then again, I have heard there is a third book, The Messenger. Maybe some loose ends are tied up there?

Despite the lack of denouement, I still enjoyed Gathering Blue. Lois Lowry is a wonderful writer and I enjoyed the little details she made up for Kira's world, such as the idea of a person's life being quantified by the number of syllables his name has. The longer the name, the longer the life. The story was written in such a way that it engaged me and kept me turning the page, wanting to figure out the mystery before Kira did. Because of the way it ended, I wouldn't say it was a fantastic book... but it was a solid one, and a suitable, if inferior, companion to The Giver. ( )

I've never read Lois Lowry's much acclaimed and often criticised The Giver, but knew that it wasn't necessary to do so before reading Gathering Blue. Now, after finishing Gathering Blue, I wonder if it would have been a better book for me had I read its predecessor first.

In a post-apocalyptic world there lives a girl named Kira. Having been born with a twisted leg, Kira is not much use to her people and would have been killed at birth like all children born with deformities if not for her mother. But the mother who protected her all her life has now died and Kira is left orphaned in a harsh society where only the strong survive. Considered useless because of her leg, Kira is sure that she will be taken to the field and killed, like every other useless person before her. But Kira has a gift that saves her from certain death: She can weave thread beautifully.

Her skill gets her noticed by high ranking members of the of the Council of Guardians who need Kira's talent for the special purpose of weaving the future of their society into the ornate singers robe. Kira is taken in by the Council to do just that. In the Council's Edifice, with a room of her own, a bath to wash in and hot food to eat, Kira feels as though she has found a new and rewarding life. But there is something very wrong happening within the walls of the Council. Dangerous secrets are unfolding before Kira's very eyes and mysteries are lurking, waiting to be solved. Kira soon realizes that she must uncover these mysteries; for the future of her world depends on it.

Gathering Blue was an easy, straight forward read on the surface, but when a deeper level of meaning is explored, the story raises some scary questions. In a lot of ways this book reminded me of Lord of the Flies. Both stories explore a society of people that have been isolated from any human contact other than themselves. Because of this they are forced to make their own laws, and because laws must be enforced, a hierarchy is formed. Both books also share a similar dark undertone that depicts humanity in its rawest form.

At times I was appalled by the rawness of this society. The people treat each other horribly. Children are slapped, hit and beaten by their mothers, men turn on each other at the drop of a dime, mothers fight their own children over a scrap of food, they live in squalid, vile conditions and harbor unrepentant hatred toward those that are different. But when I took into consideration that this way of life was all these people knew. That even a little show of weakness would mean their death, I became less appalled and more intrigued by the lack of civilization.

As Kira settled into life in the Edifice and more secrets were revealed the story became less simple and more intricate. I wanted her to find out what was going on, because I, too, wanted to know. But the knowledge is revealed slowly, sometimes too slowly because I found myself figuring the important things out before Kira did instead of at the same time, which became a little annoying. This brings me to Kira's character. For the most part I connected with Kira, she had a quiet strength that made her character easy to root for. But there were times when I thought that to have lived in this society all of her life, Kira was too trusting of those around her. She knew that after her mother died no one had her best interest in mind and that they would want her dead. She even went to great lengths to outwit those who were after her in self-perseverance, so, that she turned around and blindly believed in a different group of people in her society just rang false for me.

Overall, Gathering Blue was a good story. It was a short read that I breezed through in two sittings and gave me plenty of food for thought. I did get the sense that that if I had read the books in order I would have enjoyed this one better. I will go back and read The Giver in hopes for a greater sense of understanding of the world that has been created here, then follow that up with Messenger, the final book in this trilogy. For this thought provoking book. ( )

Kira, an orphan with a twisted leg. She is scared for her future until she is spared by the all-powerful Council of Guardians. Kira is a gifted weaver and is given a task that no other community member can carry out. She is surrounded by mysteries and secrets. No one must know of her plans to uncover the truth about her world-and to find out what exists beyond it. I found this book boring, and i felt depressed when i was reading it. I am not that much into sewing and reading about the old days and it wasnt for me. But if you have a passion for sewing and you are crafty then this is your book!

Mila M. ( )

This book gets a very strong 'meh' from me. For its size and its author, I expected to be able to rip through it in an hour or so. Instead, I found myself putting it down, walking away to read an entire series, and then reluctantly coming back to it. Suffice it to say, it didn't hold my attention.

I find this world far clumsier and preachy than that of The Giver. Worse, maybe, I find the characters duller and less interesting and the dialect immensely distracting. I admire an author who can create a sense of a society like-but-different through language (the other series I read instead of this one - The Uglies - did that very nicely in fact), but Lowry's just reads as awkward. I actually winced in several places.

Worse, the book never /quite/ seems to figure out what it's doing. Kira's world sucks. She has a gift/ Wouldn't it be great if she could... and then the story grinds to an awkward halt without ever really finishing the sentence.

This felt like a book far too consumed with what it /meant/ and not nearly consumed enough with story. Sadly, I feel like it wasn't all that successful in either case. ( )

A touching story of a girl who has survived. Survived being born into a world where disability is a death sentence, survived her mother's death, survived incredible odds. Now she's valued for her ability with dye and threads and has a purpose but there are mysteries around her life, mysteries that she must face.

It's a wonderful story, full of strange detail and wonderful characters, hope and sorrow. A quick read that will stay with me. ( )

I loved this book - it is another great one by Lois Lowry! My review is here: http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.c... ( )

This book is about a cripple girl who lives in a society where cripples aren't too lucky. She is saved from dying in the field by Jamison who has her work for him to embroider the robe.

It was mildly amusing. I read it for school. I do not recommend it because it was a bit boring. It was a sow read but touching because the main character is put down a lot due to her crippled leg and doesn't even cry! ( )

okay in the beginning, but the ending is better ( )

my second LL book--great. Really enjoying it.

a pretty good follow up to the Giver. but nothing could compare... ( )

Genre: Fantasy
Age: Intermediate
Media: None (novel) ( )

Gathering Blue is very well-written, and creates a very unique world. Although I prefer The Giver to Gathering Blue, it is a good book, nonetheless. I did wish there had been more closure, though. ( )

The second in a disturbing trilogy, Gathering Blue takes place in a society that is the opposite of Jonas's world in The Giver. Kira is an outcast and an orphan after her mother dies. When another woman brings her to the Council, wanting her killed, the Council instead chooses her to become the Robe-threader of the Future. ( )

Now this is how a book should be written. It drew me in from the start and kept me going up until the end. ( )