93 pages • 3 hours read
Gathering Blue
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
Gathering Blue is the second book in Lois Lowry’s The Giver Quartet, which began with the award-winning The Giver (1993) and also includes Gathering Blue (2000), Messenger (2004), and Son (2012). Gathering Blue is set sometime in the future, following the end of civilization as we know it. The novel traces a few months in the life of Kira, a gifted “threader” with a twisted leg. In this dystopian society, her bad leg should have resulted in Kira being left to die from exposure; however, Kira’s mother, still grieving the death of her husband on one of the village’s “long hunts,” refuses to give her infant daughter up, and thus Kira is saved.
The novel opens with a now teenaged Kira leaving “the Field” where she has sat vigil next to her mother’s body for the four days it takes for her spirit to pass. Walking slowly back toward the remains of her cott, which has been burned to eradicate any traces of the disease that killed her mother, Kira wonders what she will do now that her mother is no longer there to protect her. On the way, she meets her friend Unlock all 93 pages of this Study Guide Plus, gain access to 8,900+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
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By Lois Lowry
