A novel about hope, The City of Ember held my attention until the very last page. When I completed the novel (during my lunch today!), I asked several students if they had read the first in this series, and several of them had, and all said they, too, had enjoyed reading this now-being-portrayed-on-the-big-screen hit, except they had read it several years ago, when they read it on grade-level, as this is a young adult novel for grades 4-7…let me comment on this little later.
Hope Springs Eternal?
Lina and Doon, each twelve-year-old graduates (and the main characters), assume their new assigned jobs of messenger and pipeworker and begin to learn that hope exists through a bean seed and a worm. Strange places for hope to spring, but spring hope does. Through these two forms of life, Lina and Doon also realize that life begins some other place than the city of Ember; something exists within. As a Christian, I will be interested to see where author Jeanne DuPrau goes with these interesting perceptions in the following three novels in this series.
Allegorical Move?
I also wonder if DuPrau might be establishing this novel as an allegory of sorts.
- City of Ember = a country under attack
- Unannounced light outages = bombing attacks
- Mayor and the guards = oppressive forces
- Lina and Doon = Savior-figures
Published in 2003, I wonder what thoughts DuPrau might have had about the war in which our country was/is fighting. Just a thought. (Not sure that fourth to seventh grader would analyze this novel quite like I did…so maybe Amazon might include English teachers with nearly 18 years of experience within their descriptor? Maybe?)
A DuPrau Insight
As an English teacher…and sometimes writer…I appreciate the following borrowed from DuPrau’s website:
