This prequel was actually disappointing in comparison to The City of Ember and The People of Sparks. It was too disconnected to these two books to be considered a prequel for my tastes. The story line was not nearly as interesting as the other two books. It does raise some interesting questions about blindly following the prophesies(dictates) of someone else because you think that person must be right instead of trusting your own instincts.

Meh. I really enjoyed the first two (last two?) books in DuPrau's trilogy, and was excited about reading this prequel. I have to say, though, I felt like I was reading something that had been written by a liberal Democrat frustrated with the takeover of the evangelical right and defense contractors in modern American politics. And I say this as a liberal Democrat who is currently frustrated with the takeover of the evangelical right and defense contractors in U.S. politics. But YA fiction is not the space to pontificate; it should be a place where young and not-so-young adults can exercise their brains by leaving behind their preconceived notions. The strengths of Duprau's first two books were suspense and paradigm-shifting, if I can use the cliche. Yes, the books are mysteries of a sort, but they're also glimpses into a world that is very much OUR world, but a world where people understand social and political rules very differently than we do. That's what made the books so interesting. If I wanted to be brainwashed, I'd watch Fox News or read the Slate.

The Prophet of Yonwood, as other reviewers have mentioned, fell flat. The story was okay for awhile, but quickly devolved into a small-town dystopian nightmare. Not quite the same thing DuPrau's first two books had going for them. It would have been stronger had DuPrau not abandoned the themes she'd already established in favor of a more presentist-minded discourse about terrorism, fear, violence, and evangelical-military groupthink. Not that I think she's all that far off the mark...it just wasn't terribly successful as a prequel, in my opinoin. And the Afterword was terrible. I'm sorry, but finishing off a trilogy with an Animal House ending doesn't do it for me. Glad to know that Grover became a famous snake guy. Glad to know that Nickie survived the nuclear holocaust 50 years down the road. But so what? What happened to making a new world?

All that said, the Otis storyline was really cute...and then really powerful. If she had focused more on that, this would have been a better stand-alone book.

Ehhh...this was okay. I thought the author would take a different direction with this prequel but it was interesting to see how this all started, and how the city of Ember came to be.

Bismillah.

I like books from Jeanne DuPrau. Though her books are intended for younger people, I couldn't help but notice that her books are filled with messages of humanity, peace and the need for us all to break the cycle of hatred. I think that her books suit current situation very well.

I would say that I could agree with 90% of what she's writing in her previous two books. I would definitely ask my future children to read the first two. As for this one, maybe when they are older.

In this book, through allegory, she tried to convey to her readers that there are only two options: 1. There's no God or 2. There are many gods fighting for control. All simply because there are many versions of 'truth' and everyone is claiming that theirs are the true one.

I won't agree with that even if you cut my hands. Yes, I am a Muslim.

Religion it seems, for DuPrau, is a list of rules that are unbendable, rigid and limiting. Religion, for me is a collection of principals, that can be bent according to situation. As in Islam, there is no specific things say on how to rule a government. But there are certain principals that must be fulfilled for a government to be considered 'Good government'.

Though may be unintentional on her part, it seems clear to me that any flaws in the followers of a religion shouldn't be attributed to a religion as a weakness.

Yet I commend her work as entertaining and full of good messages. For instance the danger of religious fanaticism, forgiveness, thirst for knowledge and how rationality may (a big may) be used to gauge what is evil and what is good.

I honestly think that secularism is not the answer to our human condition. I've established within myself that there is God. And I have in my consciousness, that if there is God, there must be some sort of guidance for us in this world. And I find the Quran and the Hadith a perfect guidance for mankind.

Allahua'lam.

Look, I work with lots of attorneys so I recognize I'm not the smartest person, but I'm not sure how this connects to the rest of the series? By itself it would be an ok book, but considering it's supposed to be a prequel I'm extremely lost.

Recommended 9+ for violence, maybe mild language, and things younger readers may not understand.

3.75

The Prophet of Yonwood is a great prequel to the City of Ember and is my favorite in the whole series. I was always wondering what would happen next. It was also very interesting to see what it was like before the City of Ember and to find out who wrote in the journal Lina and Dune found in the first book.

Be nice with yourself, skip this one, it's uninteresting and useless in the series.

Well. I enjoyed very much the first two books. The Prophet could be pretty much summarized by "boring". The main characters were once again a boy and a girl, which was appreciated, but none of them was interesting to follow, the events they were involved in being quite flat, except for the fact there were pets. The story was set in a future not really distant from nowadays, so nothing new here, and it was focused on a town with a prophet. While the world was facing threats, the town went crazy interpreting the things a "prophet" said, so the story was heavy with religion and "(odd) things you must do to show god you love him so you'll be saved" (for someone not at all into catholicism, it was pretty annoying and not something I'd like to share with kids). The book was sold as a prequel to Ember but it was just vaguely related to it near the end, so it wasn't satisfying as a prequel. And neither satisfying as a fiction or a dystopia or a children book. I'll forget I read it.

I quit reading a third of the way through. I haven't liked it so far, and scanning through the rest, here seems to be nothing worthwhile about the book; no reason to keep going. I was expecting it to tell about how the City of Ember came to be, but it is only very distantly connected to that story, so my curiousity was disappointed.

This series is creative and entertaining despite the predictable heavy-handed anti-war moral, but I am getting quite tired of how it continually puts down religion and faith and prayer. In the first book, it could be overlooked, but in this one the foolishness of religion, the quackery of "prophets," and the blindness of believers is the entire point. Most of the adults in the book are portrayed as gullible, silly, and hysterical. That seems an awfully manipulative, even underhanded, message to put so strongly in books written for tweens.

Although I liked the City of Ember a lot, my copy of this prequel is going in the trash.

The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne DuPrau, genre science fiction, 289 pages. The main character is Niki. She is living in a war torn world and begs her mom to let her go with her aunt to her grandpa's house who has just died. She thinks in this small town away from the big city that it will be better and she can forget about the war for a little bit. She also want to accomplish some goals of hers. I thought this book was very good and enjoyed the interesting plot. I would recommend this book to anyone who has read the other books in the series. I thought this book did a great job of explaining how the other book came to be.

My favorite part of this book was when Niki first arrived at her grandpa's house. This is my favorite part because I love how much detail is put in when she is exploring. My least favorite part was when the dogs were taken and left in the woods. I didn’t like this part because it was very sad. Niki encountered many problems in this book. One was when there was no singing allowed another was when she thought she was getting shot at. I thought this book was very interesting.

Do not read this book as a prequel to the Ember series. Four paragraphs do not a prequel make. There are two more installments that should be added between this one and The City of Ember: Nickie's dad's story (same 50 year time frame as The Prophet of Yonwood) and an actual prequel beginning where The Prophet of Yonwood ends.

Read this as a stand-alone story. It will be more enjoyable if you aren't constantly looking for how it ties into the first two books. Also be prepared for tangents that go nowhere, things that are interesting but are never followed up on. Specifics withheld but you'll know what I mean when you've finished and they never really meant anything and you wonder why the author even mentioned them. Maybe just trying to create atmosphere?

Complaints aside, I liked this book, maybe because of my experiences with certain interpreters of righteousness (Yonwood is ruled/terrorized by one of these so I was eagerly hoping for her comeuppance.) Your mileage may vary but take this one out for a spin.

Overall Rating : F

I wish I could have liked this even just a smudge better, but what can you do?