The City of Ember

Author: Jeanne DuPrau
Year Published: 2003
Publisher: Random House
ISBN#: 0375822747
Pages: 270
Media Type: Book
Classification: Fiction
Subject: Messenger, Imaginary Place
Reader's Annotation:
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.

Plot Summary:
The story begins immediately after the construction of the city. Two of the Builders discuss what will happen when supplies run low and conditions become bleak, and decide to leave instructions for escape in a special sealed box, which will open automatically after 220 years, when it will be safe to leave the city. The box is entrusted to the Mayor of Ember, who passes it down to the following Mayor when s/he leaves office. While the Mayors do not know what the box contains, they keep it safe over the years and do not tell anyone about it. However, the box is lost and forgotten when the seventh Mayor unsuccessfully tries to open it and then dies before he can pass it on to his successor.

The action then shifts to the year 241 in Ember. It is Assignment Day at the Ember school. On this day, the 12 year olds are graduating from school and finish their education and enter the workforce. They are assigned jobs at random by the withdrawal of pieces of paper from a bag held by the mayor. Doon and Lina decided to exchange their assigned job.

Lina is thrilled to have the job of Messenger because it allows her to run and explore every corner of Ember while she delivers her messages. She works hard, puzzling over secret messages passed to the Mayor from a strange man named Looper. She also copes with her grandmother's ever failing health, and cares for her little sister, Poppy.

Poppy discovers an ancient piece of paper in a box in the Mayfleet apartment. By the time Lina manages to pry it out of the toddler's hands, Poppy, Lina's younger sibling, chewed the paper and tore it to pieces. Lina hangs on to the scraps, and becomes convinced they hold a special message.

Lina's grandmother cannot explain the paper either.Doon and Lina piece the paper together and a friend tells Lina that the message contains "Instructions for Egress"--instructions to leave Ember. They descend into the Pipeworks and discover that the instructions are indeed valid, and that the underground river holds the key to escape from the city. They also discover that a man named Looper is stealing the disappearing resources of Ember from the storerooms and giving them to the Mayor in a secret room in the Pipeworks. They report the Mayor's theft to City Hall, confident that he will be arrested.

They go to the guards to tell the ancient mystery but Lina was arrested and Doon manages to escape. However, the Mayor sets his guards upon the pair, and orders their arrest for "spreading vicious rumors." Before they can tell the residents of Ember about the Instructions for Egress, they are forced to flee the city. Lina manages to take her little sister Poppy, and, with Doon, goes down into the Pipeworks and flees Ember by boat on the underground river.

The river eventually leads to a great rock slope. Poppy discovers a book on the riverbank; Lina and Doon keep it and bring it along to read later. After a long and arduous climb, Lina, Doon and Poppy emerge from the rocks into a new world, where they discover sunlight, moonlight, stars and nature.

This discovery is followed by another one, their history. The battered book turns out to be a personal journal; reading it, Lina and Doon learn that their city was founded by a group of one hundred adults and the same number of children as a measure to guarantee the survival of the human race in a disaster that obliterated civilization.

Doon and Lina explore a nearby cave. Looking down from a high cliff in the cave, they are amazed to see Ember below them--and realize that they have been living underground all along. In a last-ditch effort to save their city's citizens, the three write a note with the Instructions for Egress, wrap it in Doon's shirt, and hurl it down into Ember, where Mrs. Murdo eventually finds it.
Reading Level: 5
Interest Level: 4-9
Awards Won:
• American Library Association Notable Book
• Kirkus 2003 Editor's Choice
• Publisher's Weekly Flying Start
• Borders Original Voices
• Several weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List (Children's Paperback Fiction)
• New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing
• Child Magazine, Best Children's Books of 2003
• Winner for children's literature, California Book Awards, Commonwealth Club of California
• Chapman Award for Shared Reading (Esmé Raji Codell)
• State readers' choice award winner in:
Florida
New Jersey
Connecticut
Utah
Vermont
Washington
Kansas
Indiana
Nevada
Missouri
New Mexico

Mark Twain Award (2006)

Author's website (if any):http://www.jeanneduprau.com/index.shtml