The People of Sparks: Jeanne DuPrau’s Sequel to The City of Ember
"Everything very green and very big, and the light comes from the sky." That, in essence, is the message Lina and Doon send back to the people of Ember once they are safe in the village of Sparks. The People of Sparks (2004) is the second book of Jeanne DuPrau’s Books of Ember, and it begins where The City of Ember ended.
Author: Jeanne DuPrau (born 1944, San Francisco)
Title: The People of Sparks (2004), Books of Ember 2
Format: English Kindle edition (Random House Children’s)
Scope: Young-adult post-apocalyptic adventure; sequel to The City of Ember
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/B0031RDW3G (ASIN B0031RDW3G)
Welcome Turns to Mistrust
The warm welcome the villagers give the two children gradually turns into strangeness, distrust and even hatred when the rest of Ember’s population arrives asking for help. Sparks is a small farming community, full of colour and life, but it has only just recovered from the disasters that emptied the world, and it has barely enough for itself. Feeding and housing hundreds of newcomers quickly strains everyone’s patience.
A Story About Scarcity and Fear
Where the first book was a mystery about escaping a dying underground city, this one is about what happens next: two communities that need each other but cannot see past their own fears. Tempers soon escalate, and Lina and Doon have to find a way to stop the conflict before it turns into war. It is a thoughtful story about prejudice, resources and the choice between revenge and cooperation, told simply enough for younger readers.
Tick and the Spiral of Revenge
The trouble does not come from one villain but from small grievances on both sides. In Sparks, people resent sharing food and work with four hundred newcomers; in the Emberites’ camp, a charismatic young man named Tick feeds his companions’ sense of humiliation until they are ready to fight. Each insult is answered by a worse one, and DuPrau shows clearly how ordinary, decent people can be drawn into hatred step by step. Doon, proud and quick-tempered, is not immune to it.
Lina’s Journey to the Ruined City
Lina, meanwhile, longs to see one of the great cities she has heard about. She travels with Caspar, a roamer who scavenges the ruins for goods to trade, and his companion Maddy, and discovers a vast, silent city of broken towers. The journey is one of the most haunting parts of the book: it shows what the old world lost in the "Disaster", and it reminds Lina that Ember was not the only place where people had to start again.
Breaking the Cycle
The book’s central idea is how a cycle of "getting even" can be broken. The answer DuPrau gives is not a speech but an act of courage and generosity at the moment of greatest danger, and it gives the ending real weight. That makes the novel a good starting point for conversations with young readers about conflict, refugees and fairness, without ever feeling like a lesson.
Who Will Enjoy It
Readers of about ten to fourteen who finished The City of Ember and want to know what happened next. It is a different kind of book, slower and more social than the first, which is exactly what the original reviewer liked about it.
The Series Order
DuPrau later wrote The Prophet of Yonwood (2006), set long before Ember, and The Diamond of Darkhold (2008), which brings Lina and Doon back underground.
The Author
Jeanne DuPrau was born in San Francisco in 1944. Before the Ember books she wrote several works of non-fiction for children and adults. The series continues with The Prophet of Yonwood, a prequel, and The Diamond of Darkhold.
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