The City of Ember (The First Book of Ember) | Jeanne DuPrau

The City of Ember (The First Book of Ember) | Jeanne DuPrau | Seeing the Light

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The City of Ember ...

	The City of Ember (The First Book of Ember) Jeanne DuPrau Yearling, 2004 - 270 pages average customer review:based on 415 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she?s sure it holds a secret that will save the city. She and her friend Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever! This stunning debut novel offers refreshingly clear writing and fascinating, original characters.

From the Hardcover edition.

I Eagerly Recommend This Book!

The City of Ember is falling apart. The Builders designed the city generations ago, but only provided for its survival for 200 years. The secrets to saving the city have been lost, and now the citizens are in a panic as their provisions run low and confusion sweeps through the masses.

Enter 12 year old friends and recent school graduates Lina and Doon. They are both convinced that answers are within their reach, and when Lina finds an old, mysterious document - chewed up and partially destroyed by her baby sister - the friends work together to fill in the missing pieces of the message. They are optimistic and courageous, and their perserverence has profound effects on the future of Ember.

There is an interesting paradox in the world DuPrau has created here - while it seems to take place in the future, the lives of the citizens are very primitive. There is no technology for communication and colors like green and blue only exist as expensive and rare colored pencils. The entire city is lit by a system of floodlights, the citizens being woken at 6am when the system turns on, and going to bed at the 9pm "lights out." No one has discovered how to make "moveable light," so they are absolutely restricted to the city's schedule. Knowledge is limited, and children only go to school until the age of 12. The city library is a mostly unused vault of makeshift books. The shadows beyond the city are called the Unknown Regions, and very few dare to enter them.

I like the small details that hint at life beyond Ember - mainly, Doon's fascination with bugs, and Lina's care of a tiny bean sprout. It's this curiosity in both of them that make them the most likely saviors of Ember. It seems that everyone else is content in their ignorance, an extension of the darkness that is always just a breath away. Darkness without, darkness within.

For me, the story just sprang to life in the last quarter of the book. I simply could not stop reading until I found out what was going to happen to Lina and Doon. I cared about them, I cared about Ember. I think part of DuPrau's success with this book is that she follows the "Show, Don't Tell" approach and let's us see through the characters' actions who they are and why we should care about them.

I've been careful not to give anything away in this review, but just know that there are several interesting revelations and an intriguing foundation for the continuation of this story, found in DuPrau's sequel, People of Sparks.

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Seeing the Light

The City of Ember is an unusual place. It has no sun or moon; only floodlights alleviate the darkness. It has no history--the townspeople only know that it was constructed by "the Builders" a few hundred years ago. And the people do not produce their own goods--they rely on what the Builders left for them in storerooms. But Ember has fallen on hard times--walls crumble, resources run low, and food has become scarce. Worst of all, the electrical system is failing and threatening to plunge the entire city into permanent darkness. Ember's citizens lack the knowledge to combat these problems, and their leader, the mayor, is not interested in finding solutions. Then twelve-year-old Lina Mayfleet stumbles on a forgotten message from the Builders that could help to save the city, but the message is incomplete. Enlisting the help of schoolmate Doon Harrow, Lina works to decipher the message before darkness falls permanently on the city.

In The City of Ember (Yearling, 2003), Jeanne DuPrau creates an intriguing world that prompts readers to wonder, what would it be like to live without fresh air or sunshine and without knowledge of anything beyond your own town? DuPrau's story of a civilization that is running out of resources could be read as a cautionary tale by conservationists, but more than that, it is an adventure and a mystery, an empowering story showing young people that they can make an enormous difference in their world.

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City of Ember at a cafe in my mind

I found this book to be quite an easy read. Keep in mind, the audience this book is aimed towards is kids though. The pictures were great, since I never watched any trailers for the movie, to fill my mind with images of the characters acting out the scenes before my very eyes. This is a great book to read with your children. Jeanne Duprau writes in such a way that allows any aged reader escape into this fictional broken down town. The immediate twist reminds me of Harry Potter when I was only a little one. Since Harry Potter came out when I was in 1st grade, I had a similar experience with that book that i did with this one. Now with this, 13 years of experience and troubles allowed me to relax more to enjoy this wonderful book. I cant wait to read the next few.

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Excellent read

The City Of Ember was a fantastic read, whether you are an adult or a child. The writing was at the level of a fourth grader, but once you get past that, the story captivates you. What would happen to humanity if a catastrophic event forced us underground? While you don't know what happened in the past, Ember gives an intriguing view of life not knowing anything about the outside world. I would definitley recommend adults and children read it, preferably together.

Good beginning for the series

"City of Ember" is the children's version of anti-utopian fantasy. The protagonists - twelve-year old girl and boy - live in the gloomy underground city Ember, where the knowledge of most technologies and even many day-to-day things are forgotten. So, Ember does not have computers, cars, any manufacturing, or even boats and matches. It still has the generator that supplies electricity, but nobody understands how it works. What will happen when generator fails? What will happen when food supplies, stored by previous generations, are exhausted?

Even though the premise of the plot has some loopholes, it was interesting enough to keep my daughter and myself reading the book, trying to find what happens next. My daughter liked the book more than me, since she was fascinated by the idea of under-ground city; she also liked the brave and reckless heroine well enough, to forgive her some really stupid acts. I personally was slightly disappointed by the slow action in some parts of the book.

Despite these shortcomings, "City of Ember" is a good read for kids who are interested in fantasy or sci-fi ("City of Ember" is closer to sci-fi, in any case), but are tired of dragons, wizards and magic schools. In our case, my daughter went to read the next books in the series.

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