Gathering Blue, Lois Lowry

     In Gathering Blue, by Lois Lowry, Kira's mother dies, and she has to start her life over again. For such a young girl, she is extremely clever.

     I love the way the stands up for herself. At the beginning of the book, she comes to see her old house, which is now completely burnt down, but her and her mother's garden is still in perfect condition, she sees people who are eating vegetables from her garden and gets really upset, and tells them that it is her garden, and that they need to leave. The reason I think this is good, is since she is alone now, people have to take her serious, or else she won't be able to get things she needs, getting adults to take you seriously is very difficult at such a young age.
     Most children if warned that they were going to die would freak out, but it really wouldn't help them at all. Kira is smart, and she stays very serious, so that the people will listen to her, and once again take her seriously. She needs to convince the "government" that she didn't kill her mother, and they are actually listening to her. I think that if she was standing there sobbing, they would think that she was just a silly little kid, and not even bother listening to what she had to say.
     In conclusion, I think that Kira is very clever, if I became an orphan, and everyone was accusing me of killing my family, I wouldn't be able to handle it. Kira really kept it together.