This is considered a sequel to Lowry's Newberry Award winning young adult book The Giver, but neither my son nor I can see the connection, except that it is another comunity formed in some post-nuclear world. This is a pretty nasty, primitive society where men and women are quite seperate, and kids are not reaised in a loving way. Whenever someone dies, is born not perfect, or is injured in a way that leaves them unable to be a productive part of the community, they are taken to "the field", where they are left to be devowered by the animals. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of holes in the logic of this world, but it must be hard to create a whole new social and physical structure.
Kira is the main character - though having a deformed leg, she was saved at birth by her mother and has an unusual talent in her fingers for sewing images with colored threads. When her mother dies she is taken by the council to live in an old building with indoor plumbing to work on her sewing. Shw connects with Thomas, a boy who is a skilled carver and Jo, a skilled singer. They are the ones to provide the creativity to the community in an annual ritual. But they discover there are communities outside who live differently.
Kira is a wonderful character - strong through her suffering, fascinating through her art. we watch her learn the art of dyeing threads different natural colors. (Makes me almost want to try it myself.)
As with The Giver, Lowry leaves us thinking about how we relate to each other - the division of labor, the parenting methods, the way we govern ourselves, the way we exclude some, creativity among us, how we deal with handicapped, how we deal with our dead, the rituals in our lives and much more. I knew my son would hate the ending - the future is left to your imagination. (finished listening 12/22 and 12/28)
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