The People of Sparks: The Second Book of Ember (Books of Ember)
by Jeanne DuPrau
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeanne DuPrauBrand: Yearling
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04-12
ISBN: 0375828257
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Yearling
Book Reviews of The People of Sparks: The Second Book of Ember (Books of Ember)
Book Review: No one wins a war
Summary: 5 Stars
I hadn't read City of Ember and this book read fine. The story starts with the note that Lina and Doon sent back to their city. The message gets through and many people from Ember climb to the surface and wander out to explore their new world. Luckily they come to the City of Sparks before they die of starvation and exposure.
The theme running through People of Sparks is war. The story is set in the distopian future, after a Disaster somehow destroyed all of civilization. The descendants of survivors have founded the city of Sparks, where they have finally achieved stability after years of subsistence farming and starvation. Ember was apparently a giant bomb shelter designed to ensure the continued existence of the human race. No one who remembers the Disaster is still alive, but everyone knows it was bad.
Limited resources (food) ensure that there will be tension from the beginning. The populations of both cities are similar and so the people from Sparks will have half as much food as they had planned on. They agree to host the people from Ember for six months and teach them farming skills. Some of the people from Ember are housed in a vacant hotel and some stay in houses with Sparks families. Here Lina (main female character from City of Ember) and Doon (main male character from City of Ember) are separated. Lina lives with the town doctor and Doon lives in the hotel. Lina and her adoptive mother and younger sister become a part of the doctor's family, while Doon and the people in the hotel feel very much as if they are still their own city.
The people from Ember are given small rations. They begin to complain. The people from Sparks begin to complain about having less food for themselves and not getting any gratitude in exchange. One bad turn deserves another slightly worse turn, and soon it looks as if history will repeat itself with another war.
The moral is definitely easy to identify here. Side comments by minor characters connect the present conflict with the Disaster and help Lina and Doon independently piece together a way to prevent war in the city of Sparks. So this has a slightly deeper way of saying war is bad. Frequently we see that both sides are in the right but clearly they have to change direction. There is a lot of moral ambiguity when it comes to characters - no villains. To make it short: The moralizing here did not feel heavy handed.
Overall this is a good book. The message is one that is difficult to present without being extremely cheesey. Here is has been pulled off. This is good for children who can grasp concepts like a grey area between right and wrong - so maybe around fifth grade and older. There are many small details that I think would have appealed to me as a child and it was still a good read for me as an adult.
Summary of The People of Sparks: The Second Book of Ember (Books of Ember)
The People of Sparks picks up where The City of Ember leaves off. Lina and Doon have emerged from the underground city to the exciting new world above, and it isn?t long before they are followed by the other inhabitants of Ember. The Emberites soon come across a town where they are welcomed, fed, and given places to sleep. But the town?s resources are limited and it isn?t long before resentment begins to grow between the two groups. When anonymous acts of vandalism push them toward violence, it?s up to Lina and Doon to discover who?s behind the vandalism and why, before it?s too late.From the Hardcover edition.
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