One is that knowledge of systems and skills that support human life, including manufacturing items from raw materials available and even basic things such as how to make a flashlight, are essential for survival. There are good lessons here for space settlement advocates to keep in mind. If your local power plant was knocked out, could you fix it, even if someone gave you the technical drawings? I doubt you could do it in complete darkness! Without a knowledgeable teacher, it may not even be possible. Then again, if everything is provided to you, there may not be much incentive to invent or improve things. After 200 years, though, I think someone would have found a way to make oil from plants in the greenhouse and use it in a lamp, or develop a battery from spare parts out of some machine. At first I found this unbelievable, but then I considered that they would lack the raw materials with which to experiment. The people of Ember do not even have portable lights to use to explore the darkness beyond their city. People in an artificial environment with minimal knowledge of the science and technology that sustains them are probably doomed, at least in the long-term. Many aspects of the story resonate with problems that may be faced by a space settlement that loses its connection to the outside universe. Lina pastes the pieces together and, with the help of Doon, and thwarted by the corrupt mayor and his police, seeks to solve the mystery of the “Instructions for Egress” and save the people of Ember. The senile grandmother uncovers the box in the closet and Lina’s baby sister chews the fragile document inside. The former mayor died without passing on the box to his successor. The grandmother is the daughter of a former mayor-who, the reader was told in the prologue, was supposed to pass along a special box that would open after 200 years and tell the inhabitants of Ember what to do when their supplies ran out. We soon learn that Lina’s parents died of some sickness, and she and her baby sister live with their grandmother. He accuses the mayor of covering up the fact that the city is in danger of collapse and is running out of critical supplies such as light bulbs. Doon explains that he wants to be underground because that is where the generator is-and he hopes to find and fix the problem that is causing ever-more-frequent blackouts. A boy named Doon, who drew messenger, trades with her. Lina longs to be a messenger, but as the story begins, she draws pipeworks instead. Artificial lights provide their sole illumination.Īt age 12, the children of Ember graduate from school and take jobs maintaining their community. The city is surrounded by total blackness. She eats canned food supplemented with some fresh items grown in a community greenhouse. She knows only that it was built 200-some years ago and stocked with everything the residents needed to live comfortably. Twelve-year-old Lina does not know where her city is, or how it came to exist. The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau is an engaging mystery that could easily be set inside an abandoned underground space settlement. Lina wanted to let the people of the city of ember know that she knew the way out but she didn’t know how to tell them so Doon told her to write a message then throw it down to the tunnel along their structure.Reading Level: Ages 9-12 NSS Amazon link for this book So Doon couldn't give the note to Clary and he had to run from the guards. But the guards were following Doon for spreading vicious rumours about the mayor. But they first had to find the rock marked by E.So they were looking for it and Doon found it !ĭoon wanted to give a note to Clary that says the way out of ember. ĭoon and lina wanted to find the way out of Ember. Lina wanted to be a messenger.But doon is a messenger so lina and Doon traded jobs. Why are you spreading vicious rumours about the mayor Lina had Thursdays off she wanted to go buy pencils but the blackout happened and poppy got lost.so lina and Doon looked for poppy and found her at home. So poppy found it and started chewing it. She wanted to find a box that her dad hid.But the room was so messy she couldnt find it. Lina’s grandmother was searching the closet.
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