The City of Ember (Books of Ember)
by Jeanne DuPrau
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Book Reviews of The City of Ember (Books of Ember)
Book Review: City of Ember
Summary: 3 Stars
City of Ember Book Review
Imagine living in an underground city. Imagine discovering a secret exit that could save your city. Imagine having the fate of the city resting in your hands. For Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, this fantasy city was reality. The builders of the city of Ember thought through everything, even the instructions to leave Ember. The instructions were locked in a box that was soon lost and forgotten about. Why must the people of Ember leave? Who will find the box? Read The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau and discover the mysterious city of Ember.
Lina Mayfleet, 12, loves to run and explore. Doon Harrow, 12, loves to work with his hands. On assignment day, Lina and Doon are assigned job. They must complete this job for the rest of their lives. Lina is hoping for her ideal job of messenger, which includes running and exploring. Doon wants to be generators assistant. The city of Ember is having a handful of black outs now and then which only last for about five minutes, but Doon wants to fix the generator before the lights go out forever. When Doon is assigned messenger and Lina is assigned pipe workers assistant, they agree to switch jobs. One day when cleaning out her closet Lina discovers her sister, Poppy chewing up some pieces of paper. When Lina puts the pieces together, she realizes that they are instructions to leaving Ember. Lina and Doon take it upon themselves to decode the missing pieces of the instructions and save the city.
If you like suspense and mystery, then The City of Ember is a good book for you. Its cliffhanger ending will keep you on the edge of your seat. There is a surprise around every corner. The City of Ember is a fantasy book for people around the ages of 10-16. This book could also be classified as mystery because Lina and Doon have to decode the instructions that may save their lives.
This book is like the movie National Treasure in many ways. The City of Ember and National Treasure are alike because they are both mysteries. In National Treasure they keep receiving clues and in The City of Ember, Lina and Doon keep putting pieces of the instructions together to find the clues to leaving Ember.
Although I enjoyed this book, there were a few things I wasn't fond of. I like how the author has a very exciting end that is hard to predict. If I were Lina and Doon situation I wouldn't be as cleaver as they are, it is hard for me to predict how they view things. I wish the author would have made the first half of the book as interesting. There isn't much excitement in the beginning and nothing makes me want to keep reading until I get near the middle to end of the book. I don't like how the chapters end without excitement. Even in the end, the end of chapters is where the excitement starts to wind down. In my opinion, I think it should be just the opposite and the ends up chapters should be exciting and dramatic. I like how the author switches points of view. I felt like I got to the characters better because I was inside there head and I could see things how the saw them.
Ultimately, I think people should read The City of Ember because it will keep you on the of your chair
Book Review: Not just for YA!
Summary: 4 Stars
First, it is impotant to know that I am not an avid fan of fantasy. I have always shied away from it at libraries and bookstores. Whenever I have been forced to read fantastical novels, by either professors or presuassive friends, I have enjoyed the various selections. I believe that certain fantasy can help shed light on our contemporary society by describing an entirely fictional civilization. Sometimes, it is easier to see the faults in our own society through the eyes of a fantastic world. However, there are the other kinds of fantasy that may make the average novel reader uncomfortable or perplexed. It is for this reason that I have kept away from this genre. Yet, both of these challenges have thrown me to the wolves!
The City of Ember is the story of a city that is lit entirely by artificial light through light bulbs. In the first chapter, the reader is told that the city was built by the Builders and was expected to be in use for only 200 years. At the end of 200 years, a metal box holding instructions on how to evacuate from the city will open and all of the citzens will be led to another city. However, the metal box was misplaced over the years and never found.
The tale begins in the year 240 when the lights in the city are beginning to flicker and the citizens are experiencing blackouts in which the lights would go out for various periods of time. In addition, there are food shortages across the city and there seem to be some unethical affairs happening within Ember's government. Eventually, the two main characters in the novel find the remnants of the instructions and must piece together the clues on how to evacuate the city.
For a non-fantasy reader, I found this book to be perfect! One of the problems that I have with fantasy books is that the names in the novels are complicated and hard to pronounce. However, all of the names in this book are very simple. In addition, the plot does not seem to be too far-fetched. There was no magic, enchanted items, or supernatural powers. Instead, the story focused more on the characters and the puzzles that they encountered. Despite the fact that it is a young adult novel, I found both the plot and the characters to be very compelling and realistic.
I would highly recommend this story to anyone who is timid about plunging into the overwhelmingly large amount of fantasy novels. In addition, I would suggest this to readers who enjoy dystopian novels such as Brave New World or 1984 but want a more simplistic novel. For those who enjoyed reading The Giver when they were younger, the City of Ember will certainly bring you back to those days. Lastly, the City of Ember is in fact part of a four book series that include People of the Sparks, The Prophet of Yonwood, and the Diamond of Darkhood. I will also read People of the Sparks as part of both of these challenges.
Book Review: Fabulous Book
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau, Random House, New York, copyright 2003. This book is the first book in a series of three and contains 270 pages. It is a Mystery Book and the reading level is at a 4.6 grade level.
This book is a twisting mystery that keeps the reader guessing the entire time. The book begins by explaining that the people, called the builders, created this town as a way to escape something. They presented a locked box to the mayor. This box contains information that will save the city in 200 years. The city will not survive without knowing the information in the box. The box becomes lost throughout the years, and magically opens in a closet. The story begins 41 years after the box opens. The city is a fictional city where there is no sunlight and it only survives on an old generator. Over time, the supplies and generator begin to perish and the city suffers from occasional blackouts.
The two main characters are recent 8th grade graduates named Lina and Doon. When students graduate 8th grade, they receive a job that will support the town. Lina becomes a messenger and Doon becomes a pipeworks laborer. Doon hopes to select a job that would allow him to fix Ember's light and food problems. Lina struggles to take care of her younger sister Poppy and her Alzheimer's grandmother. One afternoon, Lina discovers her sister chewing on a mysterious letter found from a box located in her closet. Only Lina and Doon believe that this note is important. However they have a problem, only half of it is readable. It is up to them to discover the clues and solve the mystery of the light, food sacristy, and who the builders are.
I enjoyed reading this book! While reading the book, the story allows the reader to continuously ask questions and keeps the reader guessing about how it will end. It is very interesting how the characters in the book reuse everything that they have as well as how they do not know how to use simple objects that we take for granted; for instance, a match or candle. I like how the two main characters come together to solve the mystery.
One negative of the book is the author's presentation of the setting of the book. The setting of the story is hard to visualize and comprehend. I had a hard time inferring that there is no sun in this town and that they only rely on electricity. It is also never told that no one in the city understands how electricity works. Knowing this information is useful for the reader to understand what is going on in the book. Also, by knowing this information, the reader is able to continue to ask more difficult questions during the read.
Book Review: I Eagerly Recommend This Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: Review for City of Ember
Summary: 4 Stars
By:Matt
The book takes place in the underground city of Ember and in the pipeworks(under the city of Ember).The book begins on Assignment Day, the last day of school in Ember. This is the day that the highest grade graduates, and gets assigned a job for three years. If they were good at their job, they could keep it. If they did insufficient work, they would be assigned to a new job. All of the population of Ember worked this way, and it was the mayor's job to keep things running and to lead the city.
Doon Harrow, age 12, was assigned to be a messenger, and Lina,also 12, Doon's friend, was assigned pipeworks laborer, which was the worst job they could get. After school they traded their jobs because Lina wanted to be a messenger and Doon wanted to see the generator in the pipeworks.
Doon and Lina went on living their lives, and Doon did not find what he was looking for at the generator. When Lina's grandma was cleaning out the closet with Poppy, Lina's little sister, Poppy found a box that had a set of instructions inside it on how to get out of Ember. Poppy was chewing on these instructions, and Lina had to pry them out of her mouth. Not all the pieces were there so Lina had to guess what the words were. In about three days, Lina deciphered what all the words were with the help of Doon and Clary, the greenhouse manager. The title of the instructions was "Instructions for Egress". Egress means to exit. Lina, Poppy and Doon followed the instructions and ended up finding a secret door in the pipeworks that led to a room that had several boats. They took one of the boats on a water roller coaster that led them far deep under the pipeworks. Then they hiked a three hour hike through a doorway and up a hill that led to the surface of the earth. The next day they found a small crack in the Earth's surface that led down to the City of Ember. They wrote a letter to the City of Ember and threw it down, attached to a rock, to the city. They were hoping that someone would get the letter and follow the instructions to come up to the surface.
This is how the book ends.
The beginning of the book is the most boring part. Once you get past that it starts to get really exciting. My favorite part was the ending, but it left me wondering what would happen next. Continue the adventure in the next book, "The People of Sparks".