Gathering Blue

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. Who tells Kira about the women’s plan to force her out of the community?

2. What song is everyone in the community required to gather and listen to once a year?

3. What skill does Jamison suggest Annabella can teach Kira?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Kira in “the Field” in the beginning of the story?

2. What plan does Kira have for earning her living if she is allowed to stay in the community?

3. At lunch during the Council hearing, why does Kira leave so much of her food uneaten?

Paired Resource

“5 Facts About Living With a Disability in the Developing World”

• This article from Global Citizen, written by Jackie Marchildon, discusses five illuminating facts about the circumstances of persons with disabilities in the developing world.
• This resource relates to the theme of Difference and Diversity.
• Do you think that the treatment of those with disabilities in many developing nations has more to do with culture or with education and economics? What evidence supports your beliefs? In what ways is Kira’s society similar to today’s developing world? How do you think most people in her society might defend their treatment of people with disabilities? What arguments can be made for more humane and equitable treatment, even in a society with very little surplus food and wealth?

“Hand Embroidery”

• This 6-minute video demonstrates one way that beautiful pictures can be created through embroidery.
• This resource is intended as a supplement for students who are unfamiliar with embroidery and are confused by Kira’s occupation of “threading.”

Chapters 6-11

Reading Check

1. How long does Jamison tell Kira she has to prepare the Singer’s robe before the next performance of the Ruin Song?

2. What word does Matt struggle to understand when Kira tells him about her mother’s pendant as they walk through the woods?

3. What present does Kira give to Matt after his bath on the night of the hunt?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In what ways is Kira’s new room an improvement over her old living situation?

2.What similarity is there in the placement of the decorations on the Singer’s robe and staff?

3. Why does Kira find Annabella’s claim that there are no beasts so confusing?

Paired Resource

“The Complicated Reality of Doing What You Love”

• This Vox essay by ceramic artist Marian Bull explores how monetizing art can change an artist’s relationship to their work.
• This resource relates to the theme of Artistic Genius.
• How did Bull’s relationship with ceramics change as she improved at her art? How did it change again when she started selling her art? In what ways is her situation similar to Thomas’s and Kira’s? What fears does Thomas’s history spark in Kira? Do you think her fears are reasonable?

“Beauty of Natural Colors”

• This 6-minute video demonstrates one artist’s work with natural dyes.
• This resource is intended as a supplement for students who are unfamiliar with plant dyes and are confused by Annabella’s occupation.

Chapters 12-14

Reading Check

1. Which parts of the robe design does Kira find “exquisite”?

2. What is the name of the Fen child that Thomas, Kira, and Matt hear singing in the Council Edifice?

3. In Chapter 14, who does Kira immediately go look for after Matt tells her that Annabella has died?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Thomas comes to Kira’s room to tell her that Matt has come to stay with him, what do the three young people decide to do together?

2. Why does Kira feel skeptical when Jamison claims that Annabella’s mind is declining?

3. In her conversation with Marlena, what characteristics does Kira learn she shares with the girl she and the others heard singing in the Council Edifice?

Paired Resource

“So You Want to Be an Autocrat? Here’s the 10-Point Checklist”

• This article by Shelley Inglis, a scholar of international law and former consultant to the United Nations, explains 10 characteristics of autocratic leaders.
• This resource relates to the theme of Power.
• Which features of autocracy do you see in Kira’s society? Which do you not see? Does Kira understand her society in the same way a reader does? Why might this be? What else do you predict Kira might discover about her community?

“From Operas to Pop, Here’s What Makes North Korea’s Propaganda Music So Effective”

• This 6-minute video describes the use of musicians as part of North Korea’s propaganda machine.
• This resource relates to the themes of Power and Artistic Genius.
• How does the North Korean government use musicians to maintain power? What is propaganda? Is propaganda music different from other kinds of music? Why or why not? What is similar and different about the circumstances of the artists that the Council has recruited? How many of the similarities does Kira see at this point, and which do you think the reader is meant to understand even if Kira does not?

Chapters 15-17

Reading Check

1. After Kira finds Jo’s door locked, what does Thomas reveal he carved for himself when he was held captive at the Edifice?

2. After her nighttime visit to Jo, what object does Kira see that makes her realize she is not really free?

3. When Matt disappears for two days, where does Kira learn he has gone?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. After Annabella’s death, what request does Kira make that Jamison refuses?

2. What do Kira and Thomas tell Jo to do if she ever needs their help?

3. When Kira sees how people in the Fen are living, how does she think that she and Thomas might be able to create change?

Paired Resource

“The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I [The quality of mercy is not strained]”

• This famous excerpt from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice contemplates the nature of mercy and its moral superiority to justice. Note: You may wish to explain the context of this scene and the prevailing prejudice against Jewish people in Shakespeare’s time before students encounter its use of the word “Jew” as a pejorative term of direct address.
• This resource relates to the theme of Mercy.
• What claim does this excerpt make about the nature of mercy? How does the speaker measure mercy against justice? In Kira’s society, people might claim that it is not “fair” for weaker members of the community to use more resources than they can contribute. Is this an appeal to justice or to mercy? How do Kira’s concerns for the people of the Fen and for Jo demonstrate her interest in mercy?

Chapters 18-21

Reading Check

1. What do the people in Kira’s community call their annual meeting to hear the Ruin Song?

2. What do the people in Kira’s community call the wooden cross kept in the Edifice?

3. Who falls asleep during the singing of the Ruin Song?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Jamison comes to talk with Kira about her preparation of the robe, what does she realize about her future?

2. How does Matt’s description of the village “yonder” contrast with Kira’s village?

3. What is the implied reason that Kira is so upset after the Gathering ends?

Chapters 22-23

Reading Check

1. In their first meeting in Kira’s room, which villager do Kira and her father discuss and agree is a dangerous person?

2. What caused the scars Kira saw around the Singer’s ankles?

3. What gift does Christopher give Kira before he leaves?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What really happened to Kira’s father on the day she was told he was killed by beasts?

2. What prevented Kira’s father from reuniting with his wife and daughter?

3. Why does Kira decide to stay in her community?

Recommended Next Reads

Messenger by Lois Lowry

• Messenger is the third book in The Giver Quartet; it is a companion novel to Gathering Blue, taking place in the village where Kira’s father lives, and where Matt has gone to live. It tells the story of Matt’s attempts to undo negative changes to their utopian village.
• Shared themes include Difference and Diversity.
• Shared topics include a dystopian future, self-sacrifice, community needs versus individual desires, the dangers of secrecy, and standing up for one’s values.
• Messenger on SuperSummary

The Words in My Hands by Asphyxia

• In this award-winning YA illustrated novel, 16-year-old artist Piper struggles to survive in a dystopian future as she gradually learns that her deafness may actually be a source of great strength.
• Shared themes include Mercy, Power, Difference and Diversity, and Artistic Genius.
• Shared topics include a dystopian future, self-sacrifice, community needs versus individual desires, and standing up for one’s values.