Dyson's Review of The City of Ember
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Title: The City of Author: Jeanne DuPrau Ages: 9-12 Format: paperback Pages: 270 Publisher: Yearling Date: May 2004 Retail Price: $5.99 ISBN: 0375822747 Reviewed by: Marianne Dyson,
July 2007 In
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau two preteens struggle to find a way past the
unbroken blackness that surrounds their self-contained city before the
generator that sustains them fails. This engaging
mystery could easily be set inside an abandoned underground space settlement.
Twelve-year-old Lina does not know where her city is,
or how it came to exist. She knows only that it was built 200-some years ago
and stocked with everything the residents needed to live comfortably. She eats
canned food supplemented with some fresh items grown in a community greenhouse.
The city is surrounded by total blackness. Artificial lights provide their sole
illumination. At
age 12, the children of Ember graduate from school and take jobs maintaining
their community. Lina longs to be a messenger, but as
the story begins, she draws pipeworks instead. A boy
named We
soon learn that Lina’s parents died of some sickness,
and she and her baby sister live with their grandmother. The grandmother is the
daughter of a former mayor—who, the reader was told in the prologue, was
supposed to pass along a special box that would open after 200 years and tell
the inhabitants of Ember what to do when their supplies ran out. The former
mayor died without passing on the box to his successor. The senile grandmother
uncovers the box in the closet and Lina’s baby sister
chews the fragile document inside. Lina pastes the
pieces together and, with the help of Many
aspects of the story resonate with problems that may be faced by a space
settlement that loses its connection to the outside universe. People in an
artificial environment with minimal knowledge of the science and technology
that sustains them are probably doomed, at least in the long-term. The people
of Ember do not even have portable lights to use to explore the darkness beyond
their city and locate new resources. At first I found this unbelievable, but
then I considered that they would lack the raw materials with which to
experiment. After 240 years, though, I think someone would have found a way to
make oil from plants in the greenhouse and use it in a lamp, or develop a
battery from spare parts out of some machine. Then again, if everything is
provided to you, there may not be much incentive to invent or improve things.
Without a knowledgeable teacher, it may not even be possible. If your local
power plant was knocked out, could you fix it, even if someone gave you the
technical drawings? I doubt you could you do it in complete darkness! The
most unbelievable thing in the story was not that canned foods and other items such
as fabrics and stoves would not go bad, rot, or fall apart after 200 years (in
the Houston humidity, shoes mold, coat hangars rust, and paper gets eaten by
bugs in a matter of months!), but that the builders of such a city would be so
dumb as to leave only one copy of the instructions for egress and leave it on
fragile paper with no backup! Also, leaving the residents no texts explaining
basic science and technology that required for survival,
is equivalent to leaving a toddler alone in a car with the engine running. The
author does not provide any type of religion or taboo or law that prevents the
inhabitants from experimenting—and curious humans are adept at taking things
apart to see how they work. Nevertheless,
I found this book intriguing and fascinating, and the main characters likeable
and believable. The adults were a bit stereotypical, but they are also not
essential to the story. The book comes to a logical conclusion, but many
questions remain unanswered. The premise for the story, that the inhabitants of
the City of Ember were locked away in this city for 200 years without any
knowledge of where they are or why, is not revealed. This is the first book of
a series, however, so perhaps the answer lies in one of the later books. School Library Journal reports that there is an excellent audio version of this
book that teens and parents may want to listen to and discuss during road
trips. What are some of the technical things we take for granted in our world?
What essential knowledge do we need to fix them? Aren’t all those the same
things we need to know to run a space settlement? I
give this book a half point for plausibility (because of the premise), 1 point
for descriptions, 1 point for a new perspective, 1 point for readability, a
half point for science in the plot (the children don’t use any science to solve
the problem), and 1 point for interesting characters. Total 5
points. Recommended. The City of Ember is an engaging tale of mystery and exploration that
should entertain and inspire young people everywhere, especially those who
dream of being space pioneers. © 2007 Marianne Dyson |
