The City of Ember (Book of Ember #1)

Reader reviewed by Cheryl

WOW!!! I really enjoyed this book. The City of Ember is set in a post-apocolyptic life-boat-type village set up hundreds of years ago. The idea was for a representation of the human population of earth to move to a secret village, built deep underground and well supplied for hundreds of years. After the risk of desolation has passed, a box with instructions for how the population is to return to the surface will open, and the human race would be saved. The only problem is that the instructions, and the lore behind them, are lost. Now the city is facing increasing shortages of canned food, clothing, paper, electricity, as well as hope. This book is about the quest a young boy and girl embark upon to save their city.

The author does a good job creating believable, multi-faceted, heroic characters. She shows that children can not only be symbols, but catalysts for hope. Any other author trying to tell this story probably would have left me with a dark feeling of gloom. However, DuPrau told this story in such a way, that I finished the book with a smile and a sense of hope for the darkening City of Ember