The People of Sparks

I found out about this book after I'd used the previous book for a book report. I liked that book so much that I gave this one try. The People of Sparks picked up right where the last book left off. It also introduced many new, colourful characters. This book was as intresting and entertaining as the last book, but also was very tricky. The author left clues everywhere, but you wouldn't expect a thing until a plan unfolded. The People Of Sparks is fantasy, mystery, adventure, and much more, wrapped up in one. This is a total page turner! And it all started with a book report. =)

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.

Although this is a very different book than The City of Ember, it is a perfect sequel, and not disappointing in the least. While The City of Ember may have been more inventive, in terms of an underground city that was on its last leg, this is infinitely more profound. It's still inventive, though. A terrible Disaster has befallen the Earth, and the Emberites learn that they were sent to live below the Earth, in the event that the Disaster did, in fact, occur, and so that one day they could return to the surface and repopulate the world. If that isn't a terrific idea, I'm not sure what is. The Emberites luckily find themselves in one of the more prosperous towns. As most in the town of Sparks are good and decent people, they agree to feed these strange newcomers for a certain amount of time, and while doing so teach them basic survival skills. As one can imagine, no Emberite possesses the skills to survive on the surface. All they knew was Ember, and the simple rules that governed survival in that city. Sparks has its own governing rules, and Ms. DuPrau really shows a deft hand at creating intriguing cultures. It's obvious that she gave considerable thought to a post-apocalyptic world, and her vision of it is refreshing and true. Sadly, greed raises its ugly head, on both sides, and the cultures have a terrible clash. But an important lesson is learned. It may seem trite to some, but it really is a powerful message. Paraphrased, it goes something like this: If someone does something mean to you, instead of doing something mean in return, try and do something good for them. The opportunity for such a deed presents itself, and we see this good faith effort in action. If I say more, it will be too revealing. The ending of the book caused odd salty drops to fall from my eyes, because it brought the entire sequence full circle. The Emberites, we see, had something to teach the people of Sparks - and perhaps the whole world. Together, they are stronger than they are apart. It's a heartwarming and beautiful story. I look forward to her next book with immense anticipation.

'The People of Sparks' is an excellent sequel to 'City of Ember' although the setting is not quite as original. Jeanne DuPrau deftly avoids the trap that many new authors fall into of trying to replicate the format that succeeded in the first book. While 'The People of Sparks' presents a more familiar setting than 'City of Ember', she still manages to paint a landscape unlike any we know. If the author had stayed with that and limited herself to showing us her vision of a post-apocalyptic world then I would have been disappointed. As it is she gives us a whole new story. What would happen if a village of 300 mostly good people find themselves faced with the challenge of taking care of 400 starving refugees without the skills and resources to fend for themselves? Tensions would build as resources dwindle and us/them divisions would be sure to arise. Is this a small-scale version of the same conflicts that brought about the global cataclysm of the misty past? It's a good story and the reader might just finish it a little wiser.

This is a WONDERFUL book. I can't say I love it more than Ember because I don't think of them as separate books. It's all part of one fascinating saga and I hope there will be more to come. I love the main characters and the nice balance of their reliance on and independence from each other and the way the author shows that heroes come in all sorts of personality types. I also enjoy the supporting cast.I gave a copy of Ember to our school library last year and noticed that both books made the recommended summer reading list this year. An unexpected pleasure about these books is that three generations of our family have read and enjoyed them. Whether you read them to your younger children or read them with your older children, you will find them fun, fast-moving, thought provoking and inspiring.