I didn't like this book as well as the first one, which I found much more interesting. And I found the "lesson" of the story at times too heavy handed and simplistic. But simplistic isn't always a bad thing in children's stories I suppose. I was mostly bothered that for even those who did not want to fight regarding the disagreement there didn't seem much understanding of the other side or awareness that they didn't have a right to expect a share in provisions others had worked for for themselves.

I enjoyed the parts where Lina when off away from the town exploring better and found them more interesting.

But overall kids who liked the first book will probably like it, and be interested in knowing what happened next. And it would be a good conversation starter about disputes between groups of people, how they can escalate, how to dispell them, as well as appreciating generosity of others without feelings of entitlement.

I have always wanted to read this book when I was in middle school but never got around to it until recently. It is not a horrid book, it is decent. It did drag on in some sections, it was also boring in some, but it was also good in other sections. Overall a good book to read to middle schoolers.

Ένα βιβλίο γεμάτο μηνύματα και ερεθίσματα για σκέψη κατά της κακίας, της εκδίκησης και των πολέμων.
Η αντιμετώπιση της βίας,η επιμονή για τη διεκδίκηση του δίκιου,οι ακραίες πολιτικές και συμπεριφορές που οδηγούν κατευθείαν σε πρόκληση διαμάχης και διαταραχές ανάμεσα στους ανθρώπους.
Το κακό μπορεί να ξεπεραστεί χωρίς εκδίκηση.
Το καλό σίγουρα σπέρνει σπόρους φιλίας,ομονοιας, αλληλεγγύης και αγάπης.
Βρήκα έξοχο τον τροπο που πραγματεύεται υψηλές αξίες και ιδανικά που υπάρχουν και καλλιεργούνται μέσα στο ανθρώπινο μυαλό και ξεκινώντας από ένα δυστοπικό κόσμο κάτω από τη γη φτάνει με δεξιοτεχνία να τις προωθεί σε όλες τις ανθρώπινες κοινότητες και σε μικρές ή μεγάλες κοινωνικές ομάδες προσπαθώντας απρόοπτα και προκλητικά να ανοίξει χώρο στο μυαλό και να προωθήσει τα ιδανικά της ειρήνης, της αγάπης και της δικαιοσύνης.
Ολα αυτά ειναι γραμμένα με τροπο απλό και λιτό,ευχάριστο και κατανοητό.

Καλή ανάγνωση!!

6/3 - I started reading this on the train this evening because my other current book was way too big to fit in my handbag and I didn't want to have to carry it in my hands for the whole night, so I chose something more compact and this was it. I managed 31 pages before I met my friend at the train station. From those 31 pages I can already see that it has similarly immature language and that there's going to be a number of lessons to be learned while reading this book. Was DuPrau a school teacher before becoming a writer? Because filling a YA book so full of morals and 'lessons' smacks of something a primary school teacher might do, hoping to impart some important values and life lessons into their students while at the same time getting them read. Now that I'm back home and not having to worry about how unwieldy my book is I'll be going back to the mutant-sized one. I'll get back to this in a few days once I've finished The Passage. To be continued...

9/3 - I feel like this book was one big lesson on the evils of revenge against perceived injustices. At the back of the book there is a short biography of DuPrau which tells us that she has been a teacher at one point in time, and I can see the evidence of that in her writing (did I say that in my review of The City of Ember?, if I did it's even more apparent in this book). The people of Ember have left Ember, their underground home, and are now trying to fit in with the people of Sparks, the nearest town to the location of Ember. The people of Sparks are concerned (and justifiably so, in my opinion) that the new arrivals (400+ new people, doubling the size of Sparks) are going to eat up all their food and make life harder for the original inhabitants of Sparks. These concerns fuel the people of Sparks' frustrations and feelings that the idea of having to share with the people of Ember is an unfair hardship. At the same time the people of Ember feel unwanted by the people of Sparks and all these feelings of injustice lead to 'attacks' back and forth between the two groups. The first attack leads to a retaliation, which leads to revenge until both 'towns' are in such a frenzy that two people (the two main instigators from Sparks, as it happens) are nearly killed in the fighting. Doon saves the life of one of the people in danger, while Lina is the first to rush in and help fight the fires the fighting has sparked (no pun intended). These two acts of selflessness are enough to finally get the people of Sparks to see the people of Ember as more than just a burden on their town, they can help make the town even more prosperous. Double the people doesn't just mean half as much food for everyone, in the long run it means double the workers to keep the town running.

I wish this didn't preach quite so much, but I will read the last book in the trilogy because I want to see where it goes.

PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge: A Book with Bad Reviews

This is a lovely series. The kind of dystopia where people actually live with the consequences, instead of, you know, evolving into advanced societies with kings/queens/mutants/totalitarian governments that are obsessed with deathly competitions. Get what I'm saying? This feels real. Hundreds of years ago humans were jerks. BOOM. Everyone died and now centuries later, with a significant portion of the population and technology kaput, they are struggling to stay alive and trying to make small advances to regrow life.

The City of Ember and The People of Sparks have the same tone and yet, different as well. Ember was underground and the mood was a mixture of excitement, dread and suffocating. Ember is above ground so it isn't as dark and dank but there's still a cloud of anticipation hanging over everything as in Ember, what will happen next?.

n  n

I hope Lina and Doon grow up, though. I liked the absence of it first but I'm starting to miss the teenage love drama. There's a reason I like YA.

The weak writing, admittedly present in City of Ember, is more apparent here in the second book...and the story is a bit overbearing & heavyhanded with its message, at the expense of the story-unfolding... The message is peace-keeping and war-avoiding though, so I guess I have a bit of leniency for the message-hammering.

The people of Ember have emerged from their underworld, and have found Sparks--a village that has survived the Disaster. I liked reading about the people of Ember seeing sun for the first time, figuring out that it rises and sets--and green grass--and finding fruit growing in the wild...and encountering people. I liked how City of Ember had electricity--and the post-Disaster village of Sparks had plenty of comforts and innovations that Emberites had never seen, but no electricity.
I found a lot of the build-up of conflict (to set the stage for the peace message) between the People of Ember and People of Sparks pretty dull. Still, it's decent for fans who want more of Lina and Doon--and it provides some mind-flipping concepts for the upper elementary set, which is fun.
It's interesting/worthwhile to have a children's adventure (even if its a dull-adventure) book deal with corrupt government (C.o.E.), an amorphic Disaster, war and peace, and, to a degree, socialism...

As in the first book, I'm fairly sure DuPrau was writing with a movie in mind--and as with the first, it felt a bit cheap and hole-y for this. [The almost-war scene especially--SO boring to read--but if you were seeing what you were reading, it would probably feel quick and exciting.] BUT, as with City of Ember, the ending is so so so good. Before the last chapter I was thinking I was tired of these books, and probably could have done without reading the second. When I finished the last chapter I was so glad I'd read the book. Read it for the last chapter!

If I could give this book 6 stars, I would. I enjoyed City of Ember as a fun, quick YA read, but this sequel is just as entertaining, while also being profoundly thought-provoking and insightful.

I loved that the main characters - Lina and Doon - are honest and warm, with realistic struggles: Doon is still working on controlling his temper, and Lina's curiosity and impulsiveness still tend to cause trouble. However, they are both guided by good advice and a strong conscience, paving the way for growth.

Incidentally, I was very surprised to see so many mediocre reviews on this book! I agree that the writing is fairly simplistic, but I actually felt that this contributed to the story, rather than being detrimental (I felt the same about City of Ember). Also, the message never seemed pushy or preachy to me. It's still definitely YA literature, but I highly recommend it for its great plot, wonderful characters, and quiet inspiration.

A sequel that holds true to its original characters, but puts them in a totally different situation and set of adventures. If I had one problem with these books, it would be that I suspect the authour starts writing the books with a "what values can I leave the readers with?" idea in her head. But, to her credit, I usually agree with her values (avoiding crowd mentality, being tolerant, solving problems non-violently) and the story is exciting enough anyways.

Frustrating but ultimately pretty decent sequel to the fascinating "City of Ember", this picks up right after the finish of the first volume, as the entire populace of the dying underground city make their way out of harm's way, into the upper world. "Sparks" covers the travails of the next few months, as the Emberites encounter a small town struggling to get by, with a population even smaller than the 400 survivors of the underground world. There are two major problems with the book I think, first that it is far less original in feel and setting -- the postapocalyptic worlds of films like the "Mad Max" series, and countless SF novels from the past century aren't ever very far off; and second, the whole premise of the arguments between the two communities rests on the notion that the leaders of Sparks are arrogant and unwilling to speak with the Emberites as equals, or even really as other intelligent people. While it is true that the Emberites are ignorant of many things (such as seasons, which become a big plot point that is not dealt with particularly realistically), it's also clear that they have their own special knowledge, and yet they act demoralized and the people of Sparks act superior from the get-go. The apocalypse is only two centuries past; surely someone besides the two young heroes of the first book, Lina and Doon, would have some notion of cooperation?

Still the book has some narrative drive, Ms. Duprau's pacing is fairly solid and she manages to keep up interest in the plot despite the basic storyline/originality issues I have with it, and she also succeeds I think in creating some fairly interesting characters (Maddy, Mrs Hester) without seeming to try very hard. There is still some promise in this series, and I'll be keeping up with it.

Last fall I raced through City of Ember and really enjoyed the world and the characters. The ending wasn't a cliffhanger per se, but it really left me wondering what would happen next...so much so that I raced out and bought the next book. Sadly, life got busy and it took me another 4 months to finally read the continuation.

In Sparks there are some rather significant changes to the plot dynamics which allow for some intriguing new commentary on humanity and social interactions. We're given a post-apocalyptic world in which humanity is trying to recover and rebuild. This high level genre is compounded by being seen primarily through the eyes of children and also by making the Emberites ignorant of the disasters that befell humanity or even of human history at all. In fact, through the entire first book, they had no knowledge of any other human culture at all and thought their microcosm to be the extent of humanity.

The main new dynamic in the book acted as a commentary on the interactions between people in strained situations and the passions which lead to prejudice, anger, and eventually to war. The plot separated for a time the two main characters from Ember, Lina and Doon.

Lina acts as the reader's guide to understanding the history of this new world and how humanity fell into war as well as understanding the current geography and social structure. She undertakes a journey to one of the old cities in the hopes of finding something akin to the drawing she made in the first book. Instead, she finds disaster and learns about war, disease and destruction.

Doon serves as the reader's guide to watching two struggling groups of people dealing with hardships and sacrifices as the Emberites are taught about life in the new world and how to survive above ground. He feels the sting of hostility as the people of Sparks grow resentful of the Emberites consuming their food and other resources. That resentment grows into mistrust and eventually sparks begin to fly (pardon the pun).

As tensions grow between the people, one of the Emberites named Tick Hassler (an antagonistic name if ever I saw one *grin*) grows hungry for a fight and begins riling up the people of Ember to prepare for battle. Doon feels conflicted throughout and Lina (once she returns) has new found knowledge into the near-destruction of humanity. Unfortunately, by then, things are spiraling out of control and it's difficult to see a viable resolution.

I really enjoyed the character dynamics DuPrau set up in this novel. With very few exceptions, all of the players were honestly trying to do good. She set up some great conflicts which resulted in each group of people trying to do what was good, and yet that "good" was conflicting and causing tension. It's the old adage "you can't please everyone all the time." There are always self-interests of individuals and even of groups which will collide with other individuals and groups. This book presented great examples of how people interact and shows motivation for making compromises and looking at the situation from the point of view of the other person.

It's difficult to compare to Ember and say which I liked better. I think I preferred Sparks because the plot and dynamic was more interesting to think about. Still, they are each presenting such different concepts, that it's hard to pit one against the other. They are great stories with a lot of thoughtful concepts to ponder. It's actually quite thought provoking, especially when considering the fact that it's a children's book. Children and youth will enjoy the vivid characters and the action. Adults can still enjoy it with its fluid writing and its deeper themes.

****
4 stars (out of 5)

Compared to the first book, People of Sparks comes off very one noted. The message--"War is bad." And that message comes across in the most surface of ways. Lena and Doon lose their interesting personalities and instead become silhouettes. Lena screams, "I want to explore" and Doon yells, "No more war." The book lacks the interest and intrigue of the first book and instead becomes a poor peace call for the world. Given the possibilities of having a previous lost civilization meet one recovering from apocalypse, there are so many possibilities. What happens here follows exactly the path that would be expected and varies from it very little. Even the mystery that comes up in the song about the lost city lacks teeth, as they resolve its solution nearly immediately after it is posed. Part of the fun of the first book was figuring out the cryptic message that led Lena and Doon out of Ember. DuPrau misses that opportunity by not introducing the rhyme until half way through the book and then resolving it in the next chapter.

The audiobook is not good at all. It's not because the reader has no talent for reading, but Wendy Dillon is horrible at voicing children and not great at voicing characters in general. I did learn, however, that the "au" in DuPrau is pronounce like a long o. I'm leaving the 4 star rating from when my kids and I read it back when it was new.

This is a sequel which begins right after the first book after Lina and Doon have left the city of Ember where those who have fled Ember end up finding the town of Sparks. Those from Ember have spent all of their lives living underground and don't have the skills to survive in the world they find, so they are taken in temporarily by the people of Sparks. Naturally, things happen that bring conflict between the two groups.