Module 8: The City of Ember

Full Citation

DuPrau, Jeanne. The City of Ember. New York: Random House, 2003. Print.

Summary

In the city of Ember, the sky is black and light is provided by lamps. The society that has been living underground for more than 200 years, but longer and more frequent blackouts and dwindling supplies are keeping the citizens on edge. 12-year-old Lina Mayfleet makes a discovery that may provide the answer to Ember's troubles, but no one in the city, especially the mayor, wants to hear it. With the help of her old friend and classmate Doon Harrow, Lina uncovers a disturbing secret and searches for the ultimate solution for Ember: escape.

My Impressions

I saw the 2008 film version when it was in theaters, so I was already somewhat familiar with the story. However, this did not limit my enjoyment of this clever and exciting story in the slightest. DuPrau's narrative style, utilizing the underrated third-person point-of-view to flip between Lina and Doon's stories, keeps the story engaging and will keep young readers guessing.

What Other Critics Said

This promising debut is set in a dying underground city. Ember, which was founded and stocked with supplies centuries ago by "The Builders," is now desperately short of food, clothes, and electricity to keep the town illuminated. Lina and Doon find long-hidden, undecipherable instructions that send them on a perilous mission to find what they believe must exist: an exit door from their disintegrating town. In the process, they uncover secret governmental corruption and a route to the world above. Well-paced, this contains a satisfying mystery, a breathtaking escape over rooftops in darkness, a harrowing journey into the unknown and cryptic messages for readers to decipher. The setting is well-realized with the constraints of life in the city intriguingly detailed. The likable protagonists are not only courageous but also believably flawed by human pride, their weaknesses often complementing each other in interesting ways. The cliffhanger ending will leave readers clamoring for the next installment. (Fiction. 9-13) (1)

Unlike the rundown dystopia of Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue, the darkness of Ember is essentially literal. Its people, by and large, are honorable and civilized; its governance is democratic if quasi-theocratic; its economy frugal but fair. But there is no natural light in Ember, and the blackouts of its antiquated electrical grid are coming more and more frequently: "running out of light bulbs, running out of power, running out of time--disaster was right around the corner." So thinks Doon, a curious twelve-year-old who, along with his spirited schoolmate Lina, determines to save the city. On a deliberately limited canvas, first-novelist DuPrau draws a picture of a closed society, all of its resources taken from vast but emptying storerooms, with no travel possible beyond the lights of the city. The writing and storytelling are agreeably spare and remarkably suspenseful, and rather than bogging down in explanations of how Ember came to be and how it functions, DuPrau allows the events of the story to convey the necessary information. There's a contrivance or two in keeping the narrative moving, but even the device of a hidden letter, complete with missing words, is used with such disarming forthrightness that readers will be eagerly deciphering it right alongside Doon and Lina. The two protagonists are good sorts, distinctively if not deeply etched, and fans (note: there will be many) will be pleased to know that while Doon and Lina's mission is triumphantly concluded, there's plenty of room for a sequel. (2)

Suggested Activities

Have readers form a group of "Builders" designing their own underground city (or a city underwater, on the Moon, etc.) How would they design the city? What supplies would they need?

Other Citations 

(1) "THE CITY OF EMBER (Book)." Kirkus Reviews 71.10 (2003): 749. MAS Ultra - School Edition. EBSCO. Web. 24 Oct. 2010.

(2) Sutton, Roger. "The City of Ember (Book)." Horn Book Magazine 79.3 (2003): 343. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 Oct. 2010.