The City of Ember ~ Jeanne DuPrau

It is a dark, gloomy day in Connecticut as I write this post, which is actually quite appropriate for this book! In the city of Ember, every single day is dark and only dimly illuminated by overhead light posts and indoor hanging bulbs. Every light in the city is powered by the generator and beyond Ember lies complete and utter darkness. Despite this, the people of Ember live relatively happily. They know nothing of blue skies, sunlight, birds or bees. They simply live by the hours of the day when the lights are turned on, and because there is a very limited capacity for the city to produce anything on its own, citizens rely on the supplies in the storerooms for everything they need. But just as Lina and Doon turn twelve, and are assigned to their adult careers, things in Ember take a turn for the worse. The generator begins to fail. Blackouts become more and more common, and the storerooms start running out of supplies. Medicine, canned foods, and even paper become extremely hard to come by. Worst of all, the citizens of Ember have no way to replenish power or their daily necessities. As panic begins to rise, Lina and Doon feel that there must be some way out of the situation.  Then one day, Lina’s grandmother finds a mysterious box in the back of a closet that contains cryptic instructions. Lina is sure they will save Ember, but will anyone else believe her? And will there even be enough time to figure out what they mean?

I highly recommend this novel as an independent reading or read-aloud book for your classroom! It is unusual and captivating from the very beginning, and will certainly appeal to a wide range of readers in your room. The entire series is definitely worth having in your classroom.

Buy the series here!

Maturity: 1/4

I would recommend this novel to students 10+. It contains no mature content.

Pages: 270

Lexile: 680L

Lexile is a score that helps educators and parents match students with an appropriate text. A Lexile score is a measure of both a child’s reading ability and a text difficulty. However, Lexile does not take into account the content of a novel. So, pairing readers with a text is a complex process, and knowledge of a novel’s themes and plot is necessary to make a high-quality recommendation.

If you are curious about the grade-level equivalent to Lexile scores, check out the conversion chart here!