Children's book reviews

'Gathering Blue'

[NOV. 15, 2000]   Gathering Blue," Lois Lowry, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. 215 pages. Grades 5-9.

Kira lives in a society where she should have been abandoned at birth because of a deformed leg. This is also a community where age and wisdom are noted by the number of syllables in your name, such as Matt, Kira, Thomas, Jamison and Annabella. After Kira’s mother dies, she is homeless because society rules demand people’s cotts, or homes, be burned after an illness.

Kira is alone after her mother’s death except for Matt, a young tyke who befriends her. Her neighbors resent her and want her mother’s land for themselves.

 

Soon Kira is summoned to appear before the Council of the Guardians, who will decide her fate. The Guardians recognize that Kira has a special skill of embroidery, and so they have chosen her to repair and complete the robe worn by the singer during the annual Gathering that tells the community’s history. Not only must she complete the embroidery of the historical pictures, she must dye and match the threads.

 

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Along the way Kira meets Thomas, who has been chosen for his woodcarving skills, and Jo, who has been chosen for singing ability. These three are fed and taken care of in a large Council building. All of the supplies for their jobs are provided.

The suspense starts to build when Kira must find blue threads for the sewing of the robe and in the process discovers her father may still be alive. Kira must work through the untruths of the Guardians and still learn how to dye the threads from Annabella and keep up with her sewing. This is a real page-turner, as Kira and Thomas do some investigating on their own, and Kira must make a decision about going to be with her father or staying to create a wonderful, peaceful future for her community on the unfinished part of the robe. The characters and struggles created will live in your memory long after this book is read.

 

Lois Lowry has created a book full of drama, suspense and humor. She has written many memorable books, including "The Giver," "Number the Stars" and the Anastasia books.

[Pat Schlough, Lincoln Public Library]

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'A Year Down Yonder'

[NOV. 15, 2000]   A Year Down Yonder," Richard Peck, Dial Books, 2000. 130 pages. Grades 5-8

Richard Peck has written this book as a sequel to his Newberry Honor-winning book, "A Long Way From Chicago." Mary Alice and her older brother used to spend summers with Grandma, but this time she must live a whole year with her unpredictable grandmother because of the financial difficulties of her Chicago family.

Fifteen-year-old Mary Alice arrived by train in Grandma’s "hick town" with a small trunk, a radio ("more noise," said Grandma), and Bootsie the cat ("another mouth to feed," said Grandma). Before Mary Alice even got to Grandma’s house, she was enrolled in the one-room school and warned about the Burdicks.

This book is laugh-out-loud fun, starting with Grandma’s encounter with Mildred Burdick in Chapter 1. Mildred had come home with Mary Alice to collect one dollar Mildred said was owed to her. Grandma saw right through the hoax, and Mildred ended up walking five miles home in her socks because her horse had been mysteriously untied, with Mildred’s boots around its neck, and headed for home.

 

 

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Mary Alice watches her grandmother deal with the boys’ Halloween tricks, collect money for a family in need, bring her brother, Joey, home for the Christmas program and help others in the community after a big storm.

Richard Peck has created another story full of wit and humor, a book in which Mary Alice spends a year learning how to cook and deal honestly and fairly with people. He spent the first 18 years of his life in Decatur, and many of his stories take place in central Illinois.

[Pat Schlough, Lincoln Public Library]

 

 

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