What you think of when you heart the word ‘blue’? The sky? An ocean? For Kira it is only a word. Her village has only known color for a short time and blue is not one of them. Here, children are left to fend for themselves and the ‘disabled’ are left to die. It’s a tough and draining existence.

When young Kira, who was born with a lame leg, is orphaned, the village women want to send her to the Field to die. However, when it is discovered that she has a gift for weaving, she is spared and taken in by the town’s Council. She must repair the robes of the Singer, the person who sings the history of their world at a yearly ceremony. In addition, she must learn to dye her own threads, a skill her mother never finished teaching her. Kira spends many months learning the names of different plants, when to harvest them, and how to dye every color imaginable. Except blue.

Lowry possesses an astounding ability to take large, abstract ideas and turn them into engaging, captivating stories that we can all enjoy and learn from. Kira lives in a world where scars received in battle are to be revered and admired, but imperfections at birth make people lesser. When we define our own value, we gain control of the narrative. Of our story. And that is exactly what Kira does.