Gathering Blue

By: Lois Lowry

Narrated by: Katherine Borowitz

Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Lois Lowry’s Gathering Blue continues the quartet beginning with the quintessential dystopian novel, The Giver, followed by Messenger and Son.

Kira, an orphan with a twisted leg, lives in a world where the weak are cast aside. She fears for her future until she is spared by the all-powerful Council of Guardians. Kira is a gifted weaver and is given a task that no other community member can do. While her talent keeps her alive and brings certain privileges, Kira soon realizes she is surrounded by many mysteries and secrets. No one must know of her plans to uncover the truth about her world and see what places exist beyond.

©2006 Lois Lowry (P)2008 Listening Library

Critic reviews

"Lowry returns to the metaphorical future world of her Newbery-winning The Giver to explore the notion of foul reality disguised as fair....Readers will find plenty of material for thought and discussion here....A top writer, in top form." ( Kirkus Reviews)
"Lowry has once again created a fully realized world full of drama, suspense, and even humor." ( School Library Journal)

Thought it was good

The only boring part was the first 5 chapters but thought it was a very good book

Gathering blue

Kept me up at night to finish. I could envision each character and loved

spending time with Matt.

Amazing sstory

A wonderful story. I found myself thrown into a world if beautiful literature and breath taking shock and awe as I continued to listen. Truthfully a most intriguing story which I will not forget.

Thought provoking

A good story of people’s need to control & fear of imperfection or difference but a wonderful story of perseverance & adaptation.

Loved it!

I’m loving the Giver series. This is my third time reading it and I’m still learning new things! Super creative, LOVE IT!

Amazing reading and great story!

The performance by the reader was the best I've heard. Her subtle changes in tone and cadence did a perfect job at helping distinguish between characters. I absolutely LOVED this performance. The book was amazing as well. I actually prefer this over the Giver because it felt like there was a lot .ore substance. The pace of the book, leading to the twists and turns was absolutely perfect. It left the reader just able to figure things out right as they were revealed in the story. Not too soon, and not out of nowhere.

The somewhat subtle connection to The Giver was done really well as well. It makes me really want to dive more into this Quartet and the world these books are set in.

Wholesome with despotic undertones

I could tell it was a book for young adults as the despotic nature of some of the characters and the dystopian society were not blatant and overt, but nestled quietly as undertones in the narrative to be detected by the astute or more experienced reader. It was a compelling story that never became too intense. I recommend it for audiences 5th grade forward, probably good for boys as young as 5th grade and maybe the summer before 7th grade for girls, though there is a competent and capable female lead and parents may find benefit to introducing the series earlier to their daughters. My Son said it he loved all 4 books in the series and compelled my wife and I to listen…. We agreed.

Hard to stop listening!

My 10 year old and I went right to this one after listening to The Giver. We loved it even more than that one! My daughter read ahead during reading time at school (she checked out the book from the school library) but she would still go back with me to listen to the story so I could keep up. The narrator does a wonderful job of portraying the different voices in the story, which is told from the point of view of children.

Kira is the main character. She is an adolescent girl who is growing up in a harsh and fairly primitive community. This story seems to be set in a dystopian future, after some undescribed calamity has reduced society to a level of subsistence and survival. She is orphaned, alone, and has a twisted leg. She struggles with how to survive in the community that is dominated by the physically strong. Kira is an artist and has a special gift for weaving. The community leaders recognize this ability and take her in for a unique role. However, Kira's freedom of artistic expression is also taken away. She gradually recognizes that life could be different.

The author uses humor and foreshadowing to make the story fun and suspenseful. We enjoyed pausing it to talk about what had happened, what we thought of the different characters, and what we thought would happen next. The story ends in a way that leaves much room for thought and interpretation. We immediately went on to download the third book in this series: The Messenger. I can't wait to start listening to it tonight!

As the parent of a child with dyslexia, I am so happy to have discovered Audible.com. My daughter and I can listen to many interesting and challenging books that are at her intellectual level, which would be very time consuming for her to read in print. We choose books she can check out of her school library and she reads ahead with the printed versions at school. She takes Accelerated Reader tests on the books and earns points just like her classmates, and she is developing a joy of reading that I don't think would be there if she had to struggle through the entire printed book.

You'll want to read (listen) to them all!

Although this is a stand alone book, it is a parallel story to the Giver (you find this out in the third book Messenger which helps tie the two together and fills in some blanks). Lovely descriptions, fantastic story line, and obvious commentary on aspects of society today (as did the Giver). You need not read the Giver first, but read both Giver and Gathering Blue before diving into Messenger and Son. Here's hoping Lowry writes more in this series soon.

Good, but scattered

The heck was that non-ending? Like, it was a fun ride, but then it just sort of stops right as things get interesting.