The People of Sparks (City of Ember Book 2)

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Y la chispa, the spark, crea el fuego que no solo da vida y luz y calor... Tambien es peligro y violencia... Tensión...

It's interesting/worthwhile to have a children's adventure (even if its a dull-adventure) book deal with corrupt government (C.o.E.), an amorphic Disaster, war and peace, and, to a degree, socialism... Best quote(s): “The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren't the master of yourself anymore. Anger is. And when anger is the boss, you get unintended consequences.” The characters in this book are interesting, and I found I liked nearly all of them. The characters that are portrayed as villains, have many different layers, and are not just evil, and the character that is portrayed as a sort of hero has many different sides to him. I think Jeanne DuPrau did a great job at coming up with a variety of characters, that are thought provoking and interesting to read about. Unlike other books, I found myself drawn to every aspect of the story, not just one characters adventure.My 12 year old son just knew I would love this book. He's been hounding me to read it since... early last spring. Finally, I have read it and Jacob (my son) was right. DuPrau's characterization of Doon is one dimensional. His spurts of rage create the only complexity in an otherwise flat character. Lina, on the other hand, rings true as a 12-year old throughout the book, with one exception: when her grandmother dies, Lina’s grieving process is so brief it feels like the author has ignored something very important.

Aunque el nombre de los libros lo hacen algo obvio no me había dado cuenta de lo simbólico que son los nombres de Ember y Sparks hasta que los leí en la misma oración cuando Lina esta pensando en ambas ciudades. Ember significa ascua o braza, ese pedazo de materia que permanece apenas encendido después de que un fuego se apaga. Sparks es chispa, lo que inicia el fuego. Hunter, Allan (October 10, 2008). "City of Ember". Screen International . Retrieved September 14, 2021. This is a sequel to New York Times bestselling dystopian The City of Ember. The first book, Ember, was a story of setting and plot, while Sparks is a story of characters and relationships. The author has done good job of capturing the tensions involved in a refugee situation, especially one where there aren't enough resources to go around--a better job, I think, than most adult books on the topic. You wouldn't want to," said Maddy. "That's what makes it hard. you do it anyway. Being good is hard. Much harder than being bad.”

The audio narration is pretty good, if old-school. The most annoying thing was the way the mayor’s dialogue would pause every three words for the super-fat mayor to catch his breath. Albertson, Camila (2008). " City Of Ember: Review". TV Guide. Archived from the original on November 12, 2013 . Retrieved September 8, 2013. As a Middle school or Young Adult read it opens the door to a good discussion of the difficulties and rewards of politics, and there are some good life lessons, not the least being the idea that the only way to stop bad events from escalating, is to return good for bad and convince your opponent to stop the cycle of retaliation: This gives her courage, because she finds writing very hard. So many words to choose from! So many different things that could happen in a story at any moment! Writing is one tough decision after another.

Después me molestaba con los habitantes (o ex-habitantes) de Ember por ponerse de victimas y darse golpes de pecho y exigir. La gente de Sparks no tenían ningún deber de recibirlos, y aunque repito que eso no les da derecho a tratarlos como esclavos y de forma inhumana... Me parece que debían entender la dificultad en la que los de Sparks se encontraban. Los Emberitas no son ignorantes del mundo exterior por elección. Los constructores que planearon Ember lo diseñaron de esa forma: No necesitaron construir, ni encender fuegos -entre otras cosas- asi que nunca aprendieron. Si pasas mas de doscientos años sin ver un perro o una gallina, o algún pájaro o jamas has visto el sol o un árbol, seamos honestos, tambien nos quedaríamos fascinados. Si el plan de los constructores es que la Ciudad de Ember fuese abandonada después de 200 años ¿cómo esperaban que sobrevivieran si saber construir un refugio o cosechar su propia comida? Lina seeks out Clary and asks her to come look at the Instructions. She tells Clary everything about Mayor Cole and the room in the Pipeworks. Clary sighs that there’s darkness everywhere in Ember, even inside the people. In people, the darkness manifests as greed. Clary also notes that Lina’s seed sprouted. When Clary looks at the Instructions, she suggests that the title is “Instructions for Egress”—Instructions to leave the city. Lina shares this with Doon and they decide to announce their discovery at the Singing celebration in two days. The next day, Doon sneaks Lina into the Pipeworks again. Following what they can read of the Instructions, they discover a ladder down to the river and a door. Inside are boxes marked “matches” and “candles,” and when Lina and Doon figure out that candles are moveable lights, they’re thrilled. Using the candles, they can see that the room contains hundreds of boats, which are supposed to float on the river and carry them out of Ember. Doon once or twice lets his anger get control of him and yells at someone only to regret it because it makes things worse.Lina and Doon had planned to reveal Ember’s exit instructions and the mayor’s lies at Singing, an annual event where citizens gather to sing the city’s three great songs. But as they hide from the guards in Ember School, they decide instead to exit the city that day after leaving a message with Clary so that their fellow citizens can do the same. The City of Ember exists inside the darkness, where it's always night. Darkness is held at bay twelve hours a day by artifical light, though the electricity is becoming sporadic and the city is running out of replacement bulbs. Founded many years before, there was some instructions on how to leave the darkness left behind but lost by one of the city's mayors. The city is facing shortages of supplies and the residents live in a sense of paranoia that the lights will go out forver, plunging them into enternal darkness. Someone uses mud to write hostile things about the people of Ember on the plaza and on the wall of the hotel. Someone also dumps a bunch of mud, garbage, and leaves in the hotel which causes the people of Ember to get terrible, itchy rashes after they clean it up. It turns out that the person who did these things was one of Ember's own people who was intentionally trying to increase hostilities so he could lead an army and get glory for himself in the war he intentionally tried to start.

DuPrau makes a typical first-time novelist mistake throughout this book: she doesn’t trust her reader to infer. In other words, she often over-explains, following up dialogue and action sequences with redundant descriptions of a character’s take on what just happened. Another disappointment is that the mystery of Ember unfolds in an entirely predictable manner. There are no great surprises.

The City of Ember is a post-apocalyptic novel by Jeanne DuPrau that was published in 2003. The story is about Ember, a post-apocalyptic underground city threatened by aging infrastructure and corruption. The young protagonists, Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, follow clues left behind by the original builders of the City of Ember, to safety in the outside world. At a rite of passage event for all graduating students of Ember City School, Mayor Cole stands before the students as their adult occupations are assigned by lottery. Doon Harrow, the son of inventor and repairman Loris Harrow, is assigned "Messenger" while his classmate Lina Mayfleet is assigned "Pipeworks". Shortly afterwards, the two secretly exchange assignments and Doon is apprenticed to the elderly technician Sul. At home, Lina (a descendant of the seventh Mayor) finds the opened box and enlists Doon's help to decipher its contents. Gradually, they learn that it contains a set of instructions and directions for an exit from the city in the pipeworks.