Week 2B - Gathering Blue

For this week's book report, I read Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry. 

I picked this book up a few years ago and never got around to reading it. It's set in the same universe as The Giver, which was one of my favorite books as a kid.

I think I've seen maybe one trailer for this

The main character in Gathering Blue is a girl called Kira. She has a crippled leg, in a society where the sick and weak are left in a field to be eaten by beasts (So she's already in a pretty rough situation). When her mother dies, Kira is protected by the Council of Guardians. In return, Kira is tasked with using her skills as a weaver on an important project. Her talents not only keep her alive, but they also get her special privileges and lead her towards the secrets of her community.

Recommendation: quick book to read on a rainy afternoon.

*Spoilers after the break*

As Gathering Blue is a sort of sequel to The Giver, I couldn't help comparing and contrasting them, both as I read and long after I'd finished the book. Both stories take place in a dystopian future society where each community seems cut off from the larger population (at least at the individual level). 

In a lot of ways the two societies are opposite;  Jonas (the main character in The Giver) lives in a world that values the future. The children are prepared from a young age for a specific job and everything, from family units to food distribution, is calculated for maximum efficiency. In Kira's community, however, the tykes are kept in a pen and spend all day crying and playing in the mud. Rather than the future, these people look to the past. The Gathering is all about remembering the things that have happened in the past, through the special recitation by the singer, adorned in the robe and holding the staff. 

Despite these differences, the books have a similar overall theme; a child uncovers the secrets of the society and realizes something must change. Jonas is brave and leaves the comfort of everything he knows to save the baby. Kira is also brave, as she decides to stay and try to change things and make a better future.

Another thing that interested me about this book was the color blue itself. The title of this book references both the special ceremony (The Gathering) and an acknowledgement of the difficulty in dyeing thread blue. Kira learns to make dyes from some old lady in the woods. She has to memorize how each plant is prepared and what color they make (because girls aren't allowed to read/ write). Unfortunately, the plant that makes blue is very difficult to obtain.

This is historically accurate. Blue dye and pigment was super hard to get back in the day. Cave paintings had black, browns, and reds, but no blue. Blue dye in fabrics wasn't seen until long after browns and reds and stuff. This is likely because blue dye was only made from a few of plants ( woad, indigo) and blue pigment from a couple minerals (lapis lazuli, azurite).

Lapis lazuli pendant from Mesopotamia (Circa 2900 BC).

The importance of the blue dye reminded me of a book I read last year, Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore. It's a bit about Impressionist Painters and a little about magic, but mostly the entire book is about the color blue. It's very funny, but intended for a very different audience than Gathering Blue.

Sister, if you loved reading The Giver like I did, you should read this book. It's another fully developed world and thought provoking story from Lois Lowry. I only wish I had read it as a kid.

Cheers and Happy Reading,

Brandy