The City of Ember

The City of Ember. ISBN: 978-0-375-82274-2. Jeanne DuPrau. (2003). ALA Notable Children's Books. Fantasy/Sci-Fi. Age 9+. Young adult.

This book is exciting and full of mystery until the very end. The story is initially set in a city that relies on lights that are lit from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. There is absolutely no light (flashlights, fire, lanterns) that can be used or carried around after that time. The city was build about 250 years ago and had all of the supplies the people needed, until recently. The citizens were getting worried. The lights had been starting to flicker and go dim unpredictably and everyone was stressed about what was going to happen to them.

When the children of the city turn 12 years old, they are assigned jobs in the community. Doon (12 yr. boy) was assigned as a messenger (as their were no phones in this city) and Lina (12 yr. girl) was assigned to work as a pipeline laborer. Neither were happy with their assignments and they switched. Doon was determined to find a way to fix the generator powering the city, or find some other clue to survival in the pipelines. Lina came across an important document that her grandmother was trying to find (unable to remember why), that had been written when the city was built, and was supposed to have been found about fifty years ago in order for the people of Ember to return to the world above ground. When Lina found it, she knew it was important, but her little sister had chewed and torn a lot of it up. Lina pieced it together and her and Doon were able to decipher some of it as they searched for clues. They thought they were helping the city, but a corrupt mayor and his guards kept them from initially saving the entire city. They followed their clues (with Lina's baby sister) and were able to escape through the pipeline, down the river, and up to the real world.

When they got there, they were amazed. They found a letter that had been written by one of the initial dwellers in the City of Ember, and it told how the people that lived there were not supposed to know of the real world until the time they find the letter (that was in a time capsule for the mayor, but was misplaced....the letter that Lina found in her grandmother's closet). They found out that people thought something was going to happen on land and the only way humans could survive is if they were underground. The people of Ember were not supposed to know of anything other than the City of Ember so they would not know what they are missing.

After they escaped, Doon and Lina were able to see Ember from a cliff. They dropped a message down into the city to tell others how to escape. They saved the entire city and found another group of people on land to help them get food and figure out where to go from this point.


Some classroom activities that would be fun to do with this book would be: have the children do a story map; talk about and create a time capsule for the students that will be in class next yr; students could use problem solving skills and practice deciphering messages; students could read about this book while studying engineering topics in science class and talk about the hydroelectric power that ran the city and also talk about building structures (connect it with STEM).