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Gathering Blue (The Giver Quartet #2)

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 45,236 ratings · 3,839 reviews

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 comm...more

Paperback, 224 pages

Published May 10th 2005 by Bantam Books for Young Readers (first published May 23rd 2000)

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Feb 04, 2008 Dani rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens-books

That's not a plot, that's a twist!

I read this book as a companion to "The Giver," and I was pretty disappointed. The underlying sense of unease and the tense pacing that makes the Giver so fantastic just isn't present in "Gathering Blue."

Part of this, is that because it is a companion book, I read this book differently than I read the Giver. Instead of reading the book with white knuckles and wide eyes, thinking, "What the heck is wrong with these people???" I read it thinking, "Yeah, yeah, cre...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Kelly Maybedog Hawkins rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: what-ya-and-children, what-sf

Boring and predictable and trite and not at all what I was expecting. I thought it was a continuation of The Giver but it isn't. I thought it would be in the same world as The Giver but I can't see any similarities. I thought it would be science fiction but there is nothing along the lines of The Giver in that department.

This might be a great read for a young adult who hasn't read the giver or doesn't know it's part of that "series" but I didn't enjoy it at all and couldn't finish it. For those...more

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Sep 16, 2010 Jinky rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

I had this book mapped out in my mind. From where The Giver left off, I was sure book #2 would begin with Jonas and Gabriel surviving and finding the mainstream community, like that of our modern civilization... with music, color, and love, and then they live happily ever after. But book #2 wasn't concerned about telling Jonas's life story or a respite to what might face humankind in the future. Lowry was continuing to explore the world of a post-apocalyptic society. In this book, she has create...more I had this book mapped out in my mind. From where The Giver left off, I was sure book #2 would begin with Jonas and Gabriel surviving and finding the mainstream community, like that of our modern civilization... with music, color, and love, and then they live happily ever after. But book #2 wasn't concerned about telling Jonas's life story or a respite to what might face humankind in the future. Lowry was continuing to explore the world of a post-apocalyptic society. In this book, she has created a Village that is hostile to young children, ranks a person by how many syllables are in their name, and casts out damaged individuals to the Forest.

Set years after The Giver, we are introduced to Kira in this book. We learn that before she was born, her father went to hunt and was said to have been taken by the 'beast'. She was born crippled (twisted leg) and according to law she should have been cast out, but her mother Katrina did not let that happen. Then upon Katrina's strange death (the start of the book), Kira found herself orphaned and faced the mercy of The Council of Guardians to determine her fate. Fortunately, she was an 'artist' that they needed so they allowed her to stay and she becomes the seamstress to handle the coveted Singer's robe. She befriends another 'artist', Thomas the Carver. Also maintains her previous friendship with Matt, a spirited young 'tyke'. Then she learns from ~~Isabella~~ Annabella, a dye-colorist expert, that there are no beasts in the Forest. That and upon discovering the mysterious captivity of Jo, another 'artist' (a young girl that beautifully sings), Kari begins to wonder what is going on. In the meantime, Matt's eccentric character leads him into the Forest where he discovers Christopher (Kira's father). Before she knew it, Kari was going to get the puzzle pieces together. The ending of course was another thought provoking cliffhanger! The seed of hope may or may not flourish.

Once I understood where Lowry was going with this book, I liked the plot. However, I didn't find the characters as gripping as in the first book ... with exception of Matt, so I'm glad to see that he will have a major role in the third book.

I am curious to see how Lowry ends up tying it all together.

My quote-ables:
"Take pride in your pain, ...You are stronger than those who have none."
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Jul 01, 2008 Aaron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you want to know what the book is about, read the synopsis. I stopped doing book reports when I was in grade school. If you want to know what I thought of the book, read on

Wow, what a well written little story. Little in the sense it isn't long but there is a wonderful sense of economy with her writing, no, or very little, extraneous material. No outside characters that clog up the narrative.

I did see one of the plot twist coming and wondered why the author took her sweet time about revealing...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Sue Moro rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although labeled as The Giver 2, this book has little connection to The Giver. Neither Jonas, nor any of the characters from The Giver appear in this book. The only correlation seems to be the main characters' naïveté about the world they are living in and their role in it.

In the first book, Jonas's eyes are opened by the old man known as the Giver. In this companion novel, our main character, Kira, begins to see the world for what it is when her father, known as the Seer returns secretly to he...more

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Mar 21, 2010 Aika rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very sad... at page 1 mom dies...Why die so young?!?!

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Nov 04, 2008 Cui rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: quarter-1

This book is about a Teenage girl that was born with a leg deform at birth. Her mother just passed away and her father got dragged away by the fierce piece in the woods that they nearby. Kira, The Teenage girl was known to be like 'useless' to the village because of her deformed leg and they planned to kick her out of the village and take away her house. Kira didn't want to have her house taken because if it was taken she wouldn't have a place to live so they let the Council of Guardians to deci...more

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Oct 02, 2010 Aredhel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, dystopia, audiobooks, read-in-2010

"Gathering Blue" is a refreshing dystopian novel with an engrossing plot and well-rounded characters. Presenting a new kind of a dystopian society, it introduces the reader to a new kind of a society: it's not as progressive and sophisticated as those ones described in many dystopian books. In this book Lois Lowry strayed off the beaten path and it made the book even more interesting to read.

It was artistically written - really, not only dealt the narration with artistic issues throughout the bo...more

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Oct 05, 2009 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Going into this book knowing that it is the companion to The Giver did not do me any favors. The problem is that The Giver is so darn good that any "companion" would not live up to it. This is what happened.

One problem is that there isn't a whole lot going on. Kira leads us through a ton of information about weaving/sewing, threads, dyes, plants, etc. I really expected something bigger to come out of this. Some sort of explanation for her being. Nope. None. You do get the feeling that a lot more...more

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Nov 13, 2008 Caroline rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, read-in-2008, dystopia, post-apocalyptic

Reading this book reminded me a lot of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (which a lot of people hated but is my favorite movie of his that I've seen!)--a village that seems just too good to be true, with a suspicious group of leaders and a question as to whether there really are monsters in the woods that are dangerous to the inhabitants.

I found it best to go into this without expectations, since I loved The Giver and knew this was supposed to be a companion novel to it, I didn't want to let my l...more

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Jul 12, 2007 Monica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While Lois Lowry is no one-hit-wonder when it comes to young adult literature, there is a certain quality about The Giver that can make one uneasy about starting its companion book. Although Gathering Blue did not impact me the way The Giver did, it is still a worthwhile read, well-written and with an interesting storyline.

The story is told from the point of view of Kira, a young girl who lives in a society where those with any glaring flaws are cast out to “the field” at an early age. She seems...more While Lois Lowry is no one-hit-wonder when it comes to young adult literature, there is a certain quality about The Giver that can make one uneasy about starting its companion book. Although Gathering Blue did not impact me the way The Giver did, it is still a worthwhile read, well-written and with an interesting storyline.

The story is told from the point of view of Kira, a young girl who lives in a society where those with any glaring flaws are cast out to “the field” at an early age. She seems to be an oasis in a village where personalities range from brutal to stoic and her humanistic outlook and strong will is an interesting contrast.

One of the novelties of reading books about futuristic societies is making the connection between present-day life, and imagining what it would take for society to get that way. Throughout this novel, I was reminded of the movie, The Village, and how in both plots, the towns seem to recede into isolated, simple places, where people perform a trade, rather than the integrated, fast-paced, corporate world that seems more plausible from where we are right now. Like the movie, the young people in this book live in constant fear of “the beasts”—which turns out to be tool that the elders use to manipulate the young.

When Kira is united with her father, she learns that “the field” into which flawed individuals are cast, is actually a functional place where people rely on each other and compensate for each other’s inabilities. This concept was interesting to me, as we live in D.C., which is often a rather fast-paced, individualistic, and often self-absorbed area where “survival of the fittest” is an unspoken mantra. The book serves as a quasi-parable about what life could really be like without society’s “weakest” members.

The author makes allusions to a certain “blue-eyed boy” who lives in a neighboring town (perhaps the famously light-eyed Jonas from The Giver?), which sets up for possible connections between the two villages in upcoming books. In addition, the ending of the book was sudden, and although I understood the rationale behind Kira’s decision, her work is unfinished, and any reader would be curious as to how she plans to bring about change in her society.
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Jun 08, 2008 Phoebe added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantastic-kiddy-lit, sciffy

This is a nice companion volume for the phenomenal The Giver, presenting a society that's outwardly Dystopic, rather than Utopic. The character of Kira, as well as most of her companions (Matty, Thomas, Annabella) are very realistically and sympathetically rendered. However, the last third of the book feels hastily written. We are never given a full explanation as to why the society's elders so strictly control information. They have the technology for running water, for example, but only use it...more

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Sep 17, 2010 Denise rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book because there were so many unanswered questions in The Giver and this was said to be the follow up book; but there is absolutely no connection between these two stories. If you are looking for clarification regarding The Giver, this book does not provide it. This was not a bad story, but not nearly as good as The Giver.

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Feb 13, 2008 Danielle rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I read this book because I enjoyed "The Giver" so much. Unfortunately, this was a disappointment. It was predictable, unimaginative, and unmoving. I didn't feel for any of the characters, who seemed written intentionally to tug at the reader's heartstrings. Unlike "The Giver," the plot points in this novel felt contrived and up until the very end I just didn't care what happened to Kira, or anyone else connected with her. A young reader might enjoy this, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone els...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Kate Cox rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought the book was pretty good. At the beginning I didn't really see how it tied in with the giver and thought it was at a slow pace. Then towards the end it picked up and the a little climax came in, which made it more interesting.

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Mar 08, 2013 Izzy Cann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think this book is kinda sad because she has a twisted leg and she cant walk as well as the other people in this story

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May 20, 2013 Lexi Rawlings rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have just got done reading Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry originally I decided to just read this book because we had read the previous book in the series in class. The book we read in class was just okay so I kind of expected this book to be the same way but I was surprised when I started to read it and I really enjoyed it. The previous book The Giver by Lois Lowry was similar to this one in ways but in the ways it was different it made a huge difference in how the book appealed to me. Such as I...more

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May 22, 2013 Cindy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I actually just reread this. Once upon a time I read it but I only remember that it was similar to "The Giver" but not the same. It didn't feel like a direct sequel and rereading it I felt the same way. The premise is the same--a society that needs help (though it doesn't know it does) and can be saved by only a kid with a gift, in this case, Kira. The characters from "The Giver" are completely absent, with only a vague reference to Jonas. The societies are completely different. It's no wonder I...more

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May 21, 2013 Jordon Honn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It’s Matt!’ Kira cried in dismay. ‘He’s just a tyke, Thomas! He’s much too young for a hunt!’” (Lowry). Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry is a dystopian/sci-fi type novel with lots of suspense. It is about a teenage girl named Kira, an orphan with a twisted leg who is a very skilled weaver is trying to repair the singers robe which is a robe worn in a special ceremonial song every year in her community to tell how their people came to be.
Kira starts off with the fact that her mother has died. Her fa...more

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May 19, 2013 Andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A worthy sequel to The Giver, Gathering Blue is set in a completely different world. Here, in Kira's village, colors are known, mothers and fathers have sons and daughters. But there is a constant menace for the villagers: here, the disabled and the ailing aren't "released"--they're brought out to the dreaded Field, where the Beasts will tear them apart. The Forest is full of Beasts, it is said, and one should never go there alone.

Kira should have been left in the Field when she was born with a...more

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May 09, 2013 Amita rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gathering Blue
By Lois Lowry
Science Fiction
May 2013
215 Pages

Kira is a girl who has been crippled from birth. In her society, someone like her would have been eliminated. However, Kira's mother managed to protect Kira from that fate. Unfortunately, when Kira's mother dies, villagers plan to take over Kira's land. When they go to court, Kira discovers that she must move to a new room in a more advanced building. She is introduced to heated water, indoor plumbing, and a new job. Her skilled weaving...more

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May 07, 2013 Niña Cory rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: enriched-reading-semester-2-2013

Plot Summary:
This book is the second book to The Giver series. It is set in a totally different community. In the community they have the Guardians, and one of these Guardians saved a young girl named Kira's life, because her mother died, and to all of the other members of the community she is considered "useless". She has a twisted leg, that she has had since birth. But Kira, has a gifted talent for threading, and the thread "speaks to her." Along with Kira there are two other gifted young peop...more

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May 06, 2013 Gerson Cordero Rubio rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: so-many-feels

After seeing so many reviews that stating they were dissatisfied with the book seeing it as "The Giver #2", I find that i was lucky enough to have read it NOT KNOWING it was a continuation of sorts to the Giver. I read Gathering Blue as a one off book that was in the same universe as the giver, (not until the third book did i realize it was a #2 but i digress). The Plight, if it can be called that, of Kira being "disfigured" and because of her defect she was looked down upon really made me feel...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Claire rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a short novel for teens set in a society at a different time from our own. It is probably in the future, but it could just be in another dimension. I do not think it matters too much when or where it is set, the theme is human nature and how a society can be set up to benefit it's stronger citizens by removing it's weaker ones. It is a follow-on from her novel “The Giver” whilst being an entirely different society and characters.

Unlike the one in “The Giver” this society is clearly quite...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Francis Gahren rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Summary

Lois Lowry's magnificent novel of the distant future, The Giver, is set in a highly technical and emotionally repressed society. This eagerly awaited companion volume, by contrast, takes place in a village with only the most rudimentary technology, where anger, greed, envy, and casual cruelty make ordinary people's lives short and brutish. This society, like the one portrayed in The Giver, is controlled by merciless authorities with their own complex agendas and secrets. And at the center...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Janelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gathering Blue
Lois Lowry
Science Fiction
241 pages
Finished book 4/13/13

I really enjoyed reading this book. I first decided to read this book because it is the second book in the Giver series and I really enjoyed reading the Giver. This book is about this girl named Kira. Kira was left orphaned and physically flawed in a society that does not allow and shuns you might say and discards the weak. She by the name Kira faces a frightening and uncertain future. Kira's neighbor are hostile and nobody but...more Gathering Blue
Lois Lowry
Science Fiction
241 pages
Finished book 4/13/13

I really enjoyed reading this book. I first decided to read this book because it is the second book in the Giver series and I really enjoyed reading the Giver. This book is about this girl named Kira. Kira was left orphaned and physically flawed in a society that does not allow and shuns you might say and discards the weak. She by the name Kira faces a frightening and uncertain future. Kira's neighbor are hostile and nobody but just a small offers to help Kira and his name is Matt. When she is summoned to judgement by the society council of Guardians, Kira prepares to fight for her life. Her mother had died and her father has supposedly been taken by beasts. But the council to her surprise has plans for her. She is great at weaving and and the council sees her amazing ability and they have a plan and she lives with other people who have a familiar family crisis and have the ability to what they say is "the capacity to see beyond.". This community is different than the one from the Giver because they have different rules. One rule that is different is you get more syllables in your name as you grow older like for exampleMatt who is Kira good friend is Matt in this book but in the third book his name is Matty.

I really enjoyed this book and I would give it a 4. The only reason why I wouldn't give it a five is that I think The giver was well written also and had a better word choice. This book had an amazing hook that got you hooked immediately. It starts off with, "Mother?" I thought that was amazing because you wanted to know what happened next and what was going to happen with Kira now that both of her parents were gone. There was amazing setting context clues and imagery and I could really picture what the character was going through. I could not put this book down because I wanted to know what Kira was going to next. Although both this book and the third book includes different characters I think the fourth book will collide both characters because Kira Matty and Jonas all have the capacity to see beyond and that is very important in these books. I could really tell that the characters were well chosen because it all tied together and this was a great book. The characters took care of one another when they needed help and I just thought that was so cool. Also in the Guver nobody felt pain as in this book people did face pain so I believe that in the fourth book Jonas and gave we come in and they will meet up with Kira. I am very excited to read the fourth book I believe that it will be as great or better than all the books in the series!
Janelle Gans(less)

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Apr 15, 2013 Talia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: j-sci-fi

In this companion piece to “The Giver”, we are introduced to Kira, a girl with a twisted leg left orphaned after the death of her mother. To be spared from being booted from her primitive village, the elders of the society deem her unique thread-weaving skills worthy of a new role repairing a special ceremonial robe. Kira feels happy she has been ‘saved’, but she also wonders what will happen to her when her work is finished.

I really disliked this for the first half of the book. The setting is s...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Jane B. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 08, 2013 Kole Soto rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Giver Quartet is a series that I thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, I was originally only going to read The Giver for this report, but I enjoyed the book so much I decided to read the whole series.

...more

The Giver Quartet is a series that I thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, I was originally only going to read The Giver for this report, but I enjoyed the book so much I decided to read the whole series.

Lois Lowry has a knack for writing different types of voices throughout the whole series. In Son, the villagers who took up Claire had a primitive way of talking that kind of reminded me of Scottish or Irish people. “Delwyth nodded solemnly. ‘I learnt it from the queen,’ she said, ‘when I be’d a helper in her kitchen” (Lowry 152). In contrast, the community where Claire first lived had a very sophisticated tone. “They looked at Claire as if she had said something preposterous, or unintelligible. She hastened to rephrase her question. ‘Or maybe I meant your mothers. Did your mothers cuddle your siblings and rock them, and well-” (Lowry 56). These quotes exemplify Lois Lowry’s ability to change her diction to enable different voices. One of Lois Lowry’s other famous books is Number the Stars. It details the adventures of a Jewish girl, Annemarie, going through the times of the Holocaust. A Goodreads member, Jennifer, rated it 4/5 stars and called it, “Astonishing”.

Some major themes for The Giver include: desire to escape, man against nature, and growing up- pain or pleasure. “It could work. They could make it work” (Lowry 204). This quote is referring to Jonas’s escape plan. He was dreaming of the escape all day, hence the theme, desire to escape. When Jonas does escape with baby Gabriel, he faces the perils of nature. “Gabriel had not cried during the long frightening journey, Now he did. He cried because he was hungry and cold and terribly weak. Jonas cried, too, for the same reasons, and another reason as well. He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel” (Lowry 218). This quote clearly shows that nature is weakening Jonas and Gabriel. “I’m feeling apprehensive” (Lowry 12). A major theme for Gathering Blue is injustice. Throughout the book, Kira is looked down upon because of her disabled leg. If it weren’t for her mother or her gift for sewing, she would have died a long time ago. “The girl should have been taken to the field when she was born and still nameless. It is the way” (Lowry 26). Those were the words of Vandara, who wanted Kira exiled due to her leg. This shows injustice because Vandara failed to recognize Kira’s talent for sewing, which could help the community overall. A major theme for Messenger is Man versus Nature. “The vine around his ankle tugged at him, bit into his flesh, anchored itself there, and sent a new shoot upward. Another snaked itself out of the bushes and curled around his foot” (Lowry 179). Through the whole book, the mysterious forest that surrounded Matty’s village started to viciously attack passersby and kill them maliciously. In the end, Matty is able to restore the forest with his healing powers, but not without sacrificing his own life. In Son, a major theme is everlasting love. Claire is willing to jump aboard unknown vessels, scale a dangerous cliff, and give up her youth to find her son, Gabriel. “I want your youth,’ he said harshly into her ear, and his warm saliva sprayed across her cheek” (Lowry 265). Claire would eventually agree to this in order to find her son, Gabe, who is able to defeat the Trademaster and return Claire her youth. The author’s purpose for writing this book is to entertain readers of any sort. The series was a definite success. I hope there are more books to come in this series. It was very enjoyable and I was able to read each book in a matter of hours.

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Apr 07, 2013 Dhara Mehta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Gathering by Lois Lowry is the second book of the “The Giver Quartet”. The cruelties of a dystopian society are highlighted in this children’s novel. Kia joins the ranks of Anne Shirley, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist as memorable orphan protagonists. Her father was ‘killed’ by beast and mother died of a mysterious illness. As is the tradition in this society after the death of last surviving parent, the household of the decreased is burned. The child is given away or left to die in the fie...more The Gathering by Lois Lowry is the second book of the “The Giver Quartet”. The cruelties of a dystopian society are highlighted in this children’s novel. Kia joins the ranks of Anne Shirley, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist as memorable orphan protagonists. Her father was ‘killed’ by beast and mother died of a mysterious illness. As is the tradition in this society after the death of last surviving parent, the household of the decreased is burned. The child is given away or left to die in the field. The latter would have happened to Kia especially since she had a disability. Kia is surrounded by enemies except for a boy Mattie and his dog. Mattie saves Kia’s treasured mementos from her happy childhood. All imperfect children were left were sacrificed. She was spared because her grandfather was clan leader. After the death of mother, Kia life hangs in the balance of leaders of community ”The Council of Guardians”. Her life is spared due to gift of weaving. She is to sew the Singer robe. She leaves in a community of other artists, where she is well provided for. Her friend in her new housing quarters, is it craver Thomas. Kia is told by her mentor, Jamison, to learn dying of wool from an elderly lady, Annabella. Kia and Mattie travel to Annabella’s house together. Annabella teaches Kia dyeing all the colors but blue. Blue is to be found ‘beyond’ the town limits. But in a few months she is too is mysterious sent to field to die. Thomas and Kia hear a sobbing sound in their respective apartments. Jamison, Kia’s benefactor, is yelling at a young toddler. Mattie informs them that she is a gifted singer. Mattie disappears for a considerable period of time. He travels far to give a gift of ‘blue’ to Kia. Along the way, he meets the gentleman who helps find blue despite being blinds. Mattie has ventured into disable friendly colony, which is the real utopia. Kia realizes that she and all her artists friends are prisoners in community, priced only for art. She also comes to know that her father was not killed by beast but rendered disabled by mentor, Jamison.
The gathering is about the cruelty of exploitation. Yet it is story of survival, Kia survives. Her story continues in Book 3. That which seems imperfect is very close to perfection but that which is prefect is far from it.
FQ
1. Terrifying, almost unbelievable, the casualness of the cruelty.
2. I survived because of my strength
3. Take pride in your pain, her mother had always told her. You are stronger than those who have none.
4. When to sadden with the iron pot. How to bloom the colors.
5. That vibrant life still struggled to thrive despite such destruction.
6. She was losing the joy she had once felt when the bright – colored threads took shape in her hands, when the patterns came to her hands
7. He knows just how to make laugh
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About Lois Lowry

Taken from Lowry's website:
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always...more Taken from Lowry's website:
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.

Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.

I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.

After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...

My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.

The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.

My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."(less)

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“Take pride in your pain; you are stronger than those who have none” — 930 people liked it

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Gathering Blue (The Giver Quartet #2)

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