The City of Ember

The story The City of Ember is written by Jeanne DuPrau and was named a New York Times bestseller. It was published by Yearling in 2003 and is seen as a Science Fiction book for young readers.

Jeanne DuPrau spends several hours a day sitting in front of her computer thinking of new stories. Although, she has no children she keeps busy with her nieces and nephews. She has been know to say that writing is one tough decision, but is the most rewarding thing she does. To this date she has written four novels, six books of non-fiction, and quite a few essays and stories.

This is the first in a series of books. The story is about a city in which they have stock fulls of supplies to survive on, until those supplies finally start to dwindle and the lights that light the city start to fade.. Children go to school until the age of twelve. It is then that they are given their assignment within the city. Throughout the years, 200 to be exact the city has made it by, but now that things are starting to fade, a young girl and her friends find some interesting information out. They go seeking and find  more than they bargained for. The story lends leaving the reading wanting more and wanting to know what will happen to the city of Ember.

I started reading this story with my children late year, and was drawn into it as an adult. Even though is it rated for young adults, it made for a great story and an ending that kept you wanting more. It brings to life that two ordinary kids from this underground city( which I never really realized until the end, since I came into this story late), could do all this and try to save their city. It gave my students the chance to see themselves in the story and try to see what they were going to do next. Great suspense in the ending!

Thought Provoking Questions:

• Do you think at the age of twelve you would want to go to work and miss out on being a kid?
• What do you think will happen now that Lina and Doon have found the secret of Ember?
• Now that 200 years have gone by, do you think it is safe for the people of Ember to leave the underground city?

Motivational Activity:

A great activity for this book would be to have the children infer about what was going to happen next, now that that Lina and Doon have figured out the secret of Ember. The children can continue on the story and write about what they think will happen with they city. This give the children a chance to be creative and show that everyone thinks differently and has different opinions about what could really happen next. I like that throughout this story it gives you the opportunity to ask your students questions about how they would react to the things that happen and what they would be. Especially for children within this age range.  

I liked how this story gave a map of the city so you could look at where they were talking about and reference where places were throughout the city. 

Reference: The City of Ember (Book of Ember, #1). (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2016, from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/307791.The_City_of_Ember