Gathering Blue
Lois Lowry
Library Binding
(Thorndike Press, Dec. 15, 2000)
Kira, born with a crippled leg, has recently been orphaned. Because of her birth defect, a condition that usually ends in abandonment in her culture, and her lack of protection since her mother's death, many of the women try to drive her away from the village in which she was born. Remarkably, her skills at sewing save her, as she is taken to the Royal Edifice and given a job repairing the intricate embroidery on the Singer's ceremonial robe. She is responsible for restoring the sections of the robe which illustrate the past and creating a new section which predicts the future. She lives close to Thomas the Carver, who carves the staff for the Singer, and Jo, a young girl being trained for the role of the next Singer. As all three are trained and create work for the next ceremony, Kira's discovers that the Guardians of her village may be using all of their skills for a dark purpose and that she must create a new color, blue, for the future of her people.
X