Sunday, October 18, 2009

Book Review #6 Gathering Blue

Hundreds of years into the future, Earth of today no longer exists. A whole new world where the color blue is lost, people are starving, and rely on a song sang once a year to remember their past, is created by Lois Lowry in this amazing book. Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue took an interesting take on what the future of earth might end up being.

Kira, a girl with only one usable leg, has just been orphaned when her mother died of an unknown illness. In Gathering Blue Kira relies on her skill of weaving and embroidery to survive. The plot of Gathering Blue has a few twists that will keep you turning the pages.

Like other Lois Lowry books, Gathering Blue is set in the future, on Earth, except the earth has gone in a different direction than most people believe. The people live in a village, and are ruled by a council. Every year the people gather to hear a song, sung by the singer, which tells of the downfall of earth and how this new village arose from the destruction. Kira, is selected to be the person who will take care of the robe, worn by the singer each year. The robe tells the story of earth and all the history of the people who now inhabit our planet. The robe is vibrant and beautiful, but...the color blue is completely absent. On top of everything, Kira is responsible to fill in the blank part of the robe with what the council tells her will be in the future.

The characters of Gathering Blue are somewhat static, we find out most all we know about Kira and the other characters usually in the first chapters where we meet them. Most of the story is focused more on plot than characterization.

Overall Gathering Blue was a good book, but not my favorite work of Lois Lowry. I would recommend this book to fans of Lois Lowry's books, but I would say that some of her other books are better.

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