All Hail the Great God Mickey!: A group of survivors worship a cross recovered from a Christian church.The book implies that it is not a single event, but a recurring event throughout history. After the End: The Ruin, which is explained to be a series of wars, and natural disasters.Kira's mother is the lone aversion, and she's dead. Neglect, physical and emotional abuse are all used against 'tykes' and there is little sympathy for them. Abusive Parents: It's implied that abusive parents aren't the norm (most notably, Kira expresses skepticism at the idea that a father would commit suicide and leave his young daughter alone), but we never seem to see the ones who aren't (except at the very end, with Kira's father).Unlike The Giver, which takes place in a futuristic society, Gathering Blue takes place in a more obviously After the End technologically regressed society. Things get more complicated when Kira realizes that the Guardian's motives might not be as pure as they appear, and Matt discovers a utopian village previously alluded to in The Giver. Kira is to become the next Threader - the person who will embroider the Singer's robe with the past, present, and future. Upon her mother's death, her neighbors attempt to have her killed, but she is saved by the Guardians, who single her out for her exceptional embroidery skills. Protagonist Kira was born with a deformed leg and was kept alive despite her Social Darwinist society due to the intervention of her influential mother. Its inhabitants are mean and only come together at the annual Gathering, in which the village's Singer sings a song telling the history of human civilization. The novel is set in an isolated and backwards village led by the Council of Guardians. It is part of the The Giver Quartet and followed by Messenger. Gathering Blue, written by Lois Lowry, is a story set within the universe of her earlier YA novel, The Giver. 'We're the ones who fill in the blank spaces.

Gathering blue