This book lands in the middle of “I hate you” and “it’s okay.”

First off, Nikkie was cute and quirky, but that was it. Literally. I more so liked seeing Greenhaven than I liked her. I loved Grover too; he was really interesting and helped fill out the cast. I liked seeing all the oddities of Yonwood, although the moral is rather obscure.

It revolves a lot around the concept of God and blamed God for everything that happened, which is rather dumb. Honestly, world wars usually happen more so as a result of “I want your land” to “How dare you invade my country” to “negotiations failed. time to fight.” I can think of only one war that started as a result of different religious beliefs, and it wasn’t a World War.

All in all, a cute book, but it is extremely flat. It’s also inconsequential to the series, so don’t read it if you don’t want to. I’ve been reading a lot of flat books lately, so maybe I’m just immune at this point.

Anyway, happy reading!

This book is so awesome, especially the end when it talks about the city underground. I can't wait to read the last book

Whoops-finished this a while back! Ok um, bad news. It anyone can see this, my kindle is missing. I'm looking for it, but for now the only way for me to be on here is through this iPad. And I can't use it often... So :(((((((( *exasperated sigh*

These books are getting progressively worse as the series goes on.

I don't understand all the bad reviews of this book. Sure it was rushed with some loose ends hanging (or at least not ending not explained in detail), but it wasn't all that bad. It was kind of detached from the first two books however, but the book itself wasn't bad. I just wish there was more of a connection to the City of Ember then just a few short pages.

I was hoping for a book about the people who built Ember and why they decided to not teach them any technology or nation rebuilding skills. This isn't that book. This is the author's treatise on why the Iraq war is a big mistake and how religion only makes people fight. There is more hope in science and studying the stars than in saying prayers. The story was engaging, but I'm getting tired of the religious being treated as zealots and mindless sheep looking for any type of leader. This book was a disappointment.

Why? Why is this book a thing? Why did this story need to be told? I don't understand the drive behind getting this story out into the world, and selling it as part of the Book of Ember series. I think it would have been ok as a stand-alone ('ok' might be stretching it a little) but certainly not as a sequel to the well beloved City of Ember. DuPrau could have done so many things with a prequel to City of Ember- talk about the first generation of people in the underground city, or the actual war that led up to the small group of folks retreating to the underground, or even Lina and Doon's parents generation, how everything used to be great but things were rapidly deteriorating in the city. But no. Instead we get the story of one of the first residents of Ember, 50 years before she lived there. In a random podunk town where folks believe weird crap and are easily swayed by a crazy lady's vision.
Nickie doesn't act like an 11 year old. Not only that, she makes terrible decisions and can't for the life of her figure out right from wrong. And what 11 year old has a goal to fall in love?
There are also plot points that go nowhere, or by themselves would have made a much better story than the one that the author insisted on telling; like Hoyt McCoy and his interaction with aliens (I'm not kidding), the strange appearance of an albino bear in the woods, the history of Greenhaven (the house that Nickie's aunt is insisting on selling in Yonwood), or Grover's trek through the world as the next Steve Irwin. We are given tidbits of these ideas and stories and left to fill the gaps ourselves.
The Prophet of Yonwood reads as a weird morality tale cautioning against religion- not something I was expecting from a City of Ember book. Seriously, if you're reading the series, skip this one, or take it out of the library to read only the last chapter, as it's the only thing that connects to the rest of the series. What a missed opportunity.

I enjoyed this book. It is probably a 3.5 star book. It wasn't as good as the first 2 in the series but still a good book.

Not my favourite of the series but it was an interesting prequel to the City of Ember. Found it a little bit too in your face discussion about religion and not enough story or character development.. I had a really hard time listening to one of the scences -- SPOILER WARNING - when they got rid of the dogs because they were a distraction from loving god. I found it heart wrenching and disturbing and cannot imagine a younger child listening to and not be slightly scarred. Ok I am a bit of a sensitive little thing but it kinda affected my rating of the book. I know its not fair to rate a book on this but I rate my books on my enjoyment not on the talents of the author. There is a lot to enjoy about the story and it does give you some insight into the City of Ember. As an adult listener there is some interesting discussions you could have with your child and I do also agree with the authors beliefs but I think the moral of the story overshadowed the actual story.

Favourite Quotes/Passages

“The idea seemed to be that if you prayed extremely hard--especially if a lot of people prayed at once--maybe God would change things. The trouble was, what if your enemy was praying, too? Which prayer would God listen to?

Grover shrugged. "It's nature," he said. "Nature likes the snake just as much as the mouse.

“Why did people always blame kids for things like this? As far as Grover could tell, grown-ups caused a lot more trouble in the world than kids.”

This book was dragging a tiny bit. I enjoyed the first book in the series but the next 2 were just not up my ally. So in this book our main character Nickie has a relative in a small town called Yonwood that passes away. Her and her aunt go there to sell the house. Nickie is experiencing what could be world war 3, but this small town is trying to stop it by using a prophet who can supposedly see the future. Mrs. Beezen who basically interprets these visions from god tells the people what they can't do or they will anger god. Struggling with these things she goes and looks for "trouble spots" getting attached to this town she then learns some things about the "terrorist in the woods" and meets the prophet, learning the reality she decides what to do. This is not one of my better reviews sorry guys I didn't enjoy this book and probably will not finish the story. This book is good for all ages, clean with no swear words and is easy to follow.

The prequel of the City of Ember series was a little duller than I expected, compared to the other three books that lifted my hopes up for this one. However, I still liked most of this book where it talks about Nickie, who would grow up to be one of the first citizens of Ember, and her adventures through Yonwood where she tries to accomplish her three main goals.

I listened to this out of order in the series - my daughter read the second book and was ready for the third one, so we listened while we cleaned her room.
Luckily for me, this book happens to be a prequel, and is only slightly related to the storyline in the other two books.

The prophet of Yonwood, Althea Towers, is a lady who has a terrible vision of a horrible future. The vision is so horrible, she becomes very sick. Mrs. Beeson, the town busybody, attempts to find directions from god in the prophet's vision - don't eat hot chocolate, don't own dogs, don't sing. The country is on the brink of a massive international war. Mrs. Beeson is convinced that she needs to root out evil in the community, interpreting the prophet's vision for guidance. This will ensure god is on their side and help them survive the upcoming conflict. Mrs. Beeson uses the local law enforcement to root out those who fail to follow the words of the prophet, subverting the rule of law in the interests of fighting terrorism in the community.

Nickie, a young girl visiting from the city, at first wants to help Mrs. Beeson 'make the world a better place' and reports on the potential evil-doers around her. As Nickie comes to understand her neighbors better, she realizes they are different and unusual, but not evil. Unfortunately, her friends are already caught in Mrs. Beeson's expanding net of wrongdoers.

Eventually, this small town is returned to normal after Nickie talks to the prophet. Turns out that Mrs. Beeson took descriptions of the vision as a call to specific action. Once the prophet explained this, everyone went right back to following laws and lived happily until the next international crises, which was much worse and led to the establishment of Ember.

This book made me think of life in small towns, children growing up, the current fearmongering in the war on terror, and the rise of Hitler.
I kept thinking that the author was too heavy handed in her approach - it all seemed so obvious. But then I realized that what's obvious to an adult might not be obvious to a child - and Nickie is a child. She's also a relatively unsupervised but idealistic child, and so is susceptible to Mrs. Beeson's influence.

Some other aspects of the book did not feel quite right initially. The nation was on the verge of war - yet it was something that was happening far away, with only minimal connection to people's lives. Again, this might just be an attempt to show a child's perspective.

Also, the book seemed to portray modern America - and although cell phones were everywhere, computers were not. I felt like the importance of technology to everyday life, even in small towns in America, was ignored completely.