Gathering Blue

infobox Book |
name = Gathering Blue
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Lois Lowry
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Children's, Dystopian novel
publisher = Houghton Mifflin
release_date = 2000
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-618-05581-9
preceded_by = The Giver (1993)
followed_by = Messenger (2004)

"Gathering Blue" is a 2000 novel by noted children's author Lois Lowry. This book is a companion novel to the "The Giver" (1993), and is followed by "Messenger" (2004) in The Giver trilogy. It is set in the same future time period, but possibly takes place in the year 2067, about two years after the events of "The Giver", and it treats some of the same themes. The central character, Kira, who has a twisted leg, is orphaned and must learn to survive in a society which normally leaves the weak or disabled exposed to die.

Plot Summary

In a simple village best described as a future-past society, a small group of officials, known as the Council of Guardians, rules over the populace. The Guardians live in the only modern structure in the village, the Edifice, where they administer the laws of their people, while maintaining their history by performing an annual ritual called the Ruin Song. An ornate robe depicting scenes from the song and an intricately carved staff, both of which require extremely skilled care, aids the Singer of the Ruin Song. Gathering Blue is a tale of two teenagers both blessed and cursed with the skills necessary to care for these objects, and their gifts will lead them to discover some unpleasant truths about the Guardians and their society as a whole.

Kira, a teenage girl with a leg deformed from birth, has just bid farewell to her dead mother. Fierce beasts had dragged off her father before Kira was born. Her society scorns the infirm, usually casting them aside and leaving them to die. Unsure of her future, Kira returns to her home and finds her neighbors attempting to take control of her land. After a potentially fatal confrontation with Kira's neighbors, led by an aggressive woman named Vandara, it is agreed that the fate of Kira's home will be decided by the Council of Guardians, the leaders of the village who reside in an impressive building known as the Edifice.

The Edifice is a remnant of an ancient society and is the only conventionally modern building in the village. The council hears Vandara's case against Kira, and a Guardian named Jamison is appointed to represent Kira. Jamison is familiar with Kira's family and is aware she possesses an extraordinary skill in needlecraft. The council decides that Vandara may take Kira's land but that Kira's life will be spared. She will reside in the Edifice and assume the role her mother filled before her death as the repairer of the Singer's robe. At first, Kira is relieved and grateful. She is comfortably housed, well-fed, clean and safe. She is doing work she loves. She has friends as well: Matt, a scruffy boy from the Fen, a poverty-stricken area, who visits with his dog, Branch, and Thomas, a boy Kira's age who also lives under the care of the Guardians. Thomas as an exquisite carver, and he is assigned to work on the Singer's staff. Kira's one desire is to find woad, the plant that will allow her to make blue thread, the one color lacking in the spectrum available to her.

She finds a man who is later to be discovered as Christopher, her father who was blinded by his enemy Jamison. Kira is shocked and reveals to Thomas that the Singer is a prisoner, held back by shackles under his robe.

Kira considers the fate of the Singer and her own role as the tender of the robe. She selflessly decides that she will stay in her village and work toward creating a better future for her people by working within the system. Even though that meant making herself a prisoner.

References and readings

* Lowry, Lois. "Gathering Blue" (Houghton Mifflin, 2000). Hardcover edition, ISBN 0-618-05581-9.
* [http://www.loislowry.com Lois Lowry's web site] has an informative [http://www.loislowry.com/speeches.html speeches] section as well as a [http://www.loislowry.com/gathering.html summary] of "Gathering Blue" itself.