Reading Level: Ages 9-12

Lois Lowry has an effortless, pleasing writing style that can make a slight tale such as GATHERING BLUE an enjoyable read that I can heartily recommend to readers from age 9 and up.

On the surface, GATHERING BLUE seems flawed in several ways: it's story is thin, the dramatic tension is not well developed, the mysteries are minor, and the final scenes are predictable and rather low-key. More often than not, we are told that a horrid journey to a far away place has happened or that someone has had an encounter with a stalking beast along a forest path, rather than experiencing the journey or having the encounter ourselves. In many ways, this book seems like the exposition portion of a longer work. (And perhaps it is.)

But all of these "flaws" mean nothing because the author paints a compelling picture of a society where flawed people are summarily discarded and left to die in "the fields." We are sympathetic to the two-syllable orphan, Kira, with her lame leg and precarious position in the village. We are moved by her plight and are drawn into a world we experience through her eyes. GATHERING BLUE is more a tale of personal discovery than of physical action as Kira explores the place art has in society and finds her place within the community.

Like the physically flawed Kira, who is saved from death by her artistic talents, Lois Lowry's masterly writing turns an apparently flawed story in to a small gem of a read.

— KB SHAW, Publisher, Spectrum - Member SCBWI