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Gathering Blueby Lois Lowry
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Gathering Blueby Lois Lowry
Order This Book |
A talented yet lame girl is orphaned. In order to survive, she must petition to a council of elders that her skills are of value. They recognize her talents, but slowly she learns that they have betrayed her and others in their society.
This is a dark tale of coming to grips with the betrayal that can come within a culture, and how to work to counteract these effects. Adults are also betrayed by this culture, so both teens and adults have to work to change things.
This is a good story for the teen who feels overwhelmed with the unfairness the world can present, and who needs to know that he or she can work to change the world.
The author's writing style is narrative. The reader gets a strong sense of the cognitive and emotional process that this girl goes through as she comes to terms with societal problems. Girls would probably enjoy this book more than boys, but boys will related to the males in the story.
The main character is a seamstress. One of her close friends is a carver. Children from rural backgrounds or who have a strong appreciation for the arts world may enjoy this story. Due to this book's dark nature, I would not recommend it to anyone under 16 years of age (unless read with a parent).
Rosemary Moffitt, MFCCIn perhaps her strongest work to date, Lois Lowry once again creates a mysterious but plausible future world. It is a society ruled by savagery and deceit and that shuns and discards the weak. Left orphaned and physically flawed, young Kira faces a frightening, uncertain future. Blessed with an almost magical talent that keeps her alive, she struggles with ever broadening responsibilities in her quest for truth, discovering things that will change her life forever.
Kira straightened her shoulders and spoke. She held her voice steady and tried to meet the eyes each woman in turn. Some lowered their gaze and looked at the ground. That was good. It meant they were weak.
"You kow that in a village conflict that could bring death, we must go to the Council of Guardians," Kira reminded them. She heard some murmurs of assent. Vandara's hand still gripped the rock, and her shoulders were tense, preparing to throw.
Kira looked directly at Vandara but she was speaking to the others now, in need of their support. She appealed not to their sympathy, because she knew they had none, but to their fear.
"Remember that if conflict is not taken to the Council of Guardians, and if there is a death..."
She heard a murmur,. "If there is a death..." she heard a woman repeat in an uncertain, apprehensive voice.
Kira waited. She stood as tall and straight as she could.
Finally a woman in the group completed the words of the rule. "The causer-of-death must die."
Lois Lowry first captivated young readers in 1977 with her award-winning first novel, A Summer to Die. From there she went on to create the ever popular Anastasia Krupnik. She was the recipient of the Newberry medal in 1990 for Number the Stars and again in 1994 for The Giver.