Gathering Blue

By: Lois Lowry

Review by: Grace

Have you ever been left out? In Lois Lowry’s Gathering Blue, Kira is a young girl who is shunned from her community just because she has a crippled leg. Now she is all alone. Her mother has died from a sickness and her father was taken by the beasts in the forest. Kira is faced with the hardest problem of her life, how to live alone.

Usually, when a crippled child is born, they are taken to the field to be eaten by the beasts. When Kira was born, her mother fought for her, and she was allowed to stay. Kira has no living relatives and won’t be wanted for adoption. There are many women in the village that want her gone. So now the Council of Guardians mush make the decision: does she live or die?

After the death of her mother, Kira’s home was burned to avoid the spread of sickness. While Kira is trying to rebuild her home, a group of women who want her land space come and start threatening her. They are lead by a woman named Vandara who has many scars on her face. When the women arrived they started harassing Kira. Some even threw rocks. Kira, with a crippled leg, had no way to defend herself, so she just stood their taking all the pain. Finally, Kira told them to stop and Vandara told the women that if they kept it up, they could all get in trouble. So they decided to let the Council of Guardians decide Kira’s fate.

Many different types of people would like this book. It is full of adventure, decisions and learning to succeed. Gathering Blue is a great book that really catches your attention and makes you want to keep reading. This is the second book in a series of three. The first book is The Giver and the third is Messenger. To read Gathering Blue, you do not need to read The Giver but to understand Messenger you should. Overall, this was a great book and I would definitely recommend reading it.