The People of Sparks (Books of Ember) | Jeanne Duprau

The People of Sparks (Books of Ember) | Jeanne Duprau | She did it again

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The People of Spar...

	The People of Sparks (Books of Ember) Jeanne Duprau Yearling, 2005 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 103 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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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Facing the new world

In "The People of Sparks", Jeanne DuPrau follows Lina and Doon and the people of Ember as they climb out from their underground city into the sunlight of a new-old world, the world after the apocalypse. This is a different kind of book from "The City of Ember", one that deals with a different kind of drama. DuPrau bravely looks into the darkness of our human hearts, well intentioned but weak in the testing. How does a small village deal with 400 dazed and helpless strangers whose numbers take a heavy toll on its resources and tolerance? People want to do the right thing, for the most part, but doing the right thing is hard. In elegantly clear and plain language, DuPrau lays out the problems facing the peoples of Ember and Sparks, and in doing so, grapples with some very large issues. There's a good story here, too, and interesting new characters. Everyone's flawed, as people are. Will the worst instincts of the peoples of Sparks lead to war and chaos again? Read it and find out. You won't easily forget this book.

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She did it again

The City of Ember is a great book, I believe. To say Sparks is very nearly as good is to say that it is another extraordinary achievement, another completely and richly imagined world, another gripping story that'll keep you up till you've finished it, whatever age you may be. We get to know Lina and Doon better, and like them the more we know them. The story leads up to an ending that seems painfully inevitable but then, when it comes, is both unsentimental and deeply heartwarming. A terrific book.

creative and also uncomfortably realistic

I'll let the kids' reviews decide how good this book is for its target audience. But it definitely spoke to issues I'm wrestling with as a middle-aged mother, living in a neighborhood that is struggling with sudden racial and economic changes. Sentiments expressed by the people of Ember and of Sparks sounded uncomfortably familiar--not just from my immediate situation but from far more infamous parts of the world and of history. I think the author has done a great job of addressing multiple issues of nonviolence in a creative setting that portrays human nature very realistically. Nonviolent problem solving is so much more complex than "make love not war." This book recognizes that and gives some sobering food for thought.

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loved it!

I so value Jeanne DuPrau's writing as she manages to convey the golden truths in a simple way that even children can understand. I think we're seeing classics in the making.

Out of the lightbulb and into the light.

And here we are folks back to Ember, kinda.

Jeanne Duprau's sequel to her thoroughly satisfying 2003 novel "The City of Ember" takes place in fresh surface air, in stark contrast to it's subground predecessor. Though the setting may have changed, the pieces of genius throughout it's pages are far from gone.

The People of Sparks begins shortly after "City of Ember" in the small and grungy aboveground town of Sparks. The towns citizens, unlike those of ember, are people of the land, wise in the ways of manual labor. The newly shelterless Emberites seek to take refuge in the town, and the townspeople accept the city-citizens plea. But tensions soon begin to rise, and differences between the two groups begin to tear them slowly apart, eventually escalating into open hostilities.

As with the first novel, Duprau manages to paint an iconic picture of a world where humanity has killed itself, presenting many images of human greatness reduced to nothing. The book sends powerful messages of redemption and how human selfishness can only lead to destruction.

The novel does contain, a however, a few cliches in it's character developement. These include characters not being honest with each other for no reason particular reason. Some specific parts seem to put the moral point before the literary one, causing some of the more powerful moral points to be somewhat underwhelming due to the slight cheesiness of the event.

This novel is a major success for Duprau, it's sets her apart from other authors, making her mark in young adults literature. A masterpiece? Not quite, but a great book by most standards.

B+

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