In the first book, you discover the City of Ember, a city that believes it is the only establishment inhabited by the only people and there is nothing other than it, but it is failing. The city exists in darkness only lit by electricity during the day hours, electricity that is malfunctioning with increasing frequency. The people of Ember are terrified of the darkness and are running out of supplies. They don't know that the Builders of the city only created it to last for 240 years and they were supposed to leave a little over 20 years ago. That is, until the two main characters, Lina and Doon, find the instructions left by the Builders and lead the people of the City of Ember out of their dying city to safety. On the way out, they find a journal written by one of the original members of their city and learn that it was created to save the human population from the coming Disaster and that the city was actually built underground in a massive cave system.
The People of Sparks begins with the Emberites, the people of Ember, discovering the world as we know it, lit by the sun and covered in nature. They go in search of civilization and stumble across the small village of Sparks, population 322. The village agrees to shelter the Emberites long enough to teach them the foreign ways of this new world, but there's no room within the actual village for the four hundred or so Emberites to sleep on beds and have other such luxuries. The people of Sparks allow the refugees to stay in an old, abandoned hotel near the town and are expected to work daily for the food the village is accommodating them with. The Emberites are not used to the sun or hard work so the constant labor wears them down, but also makes them stronger. The people of Sparks are getting angry with the Emberites because they think the smaller, paler people are lazy. The small village is not equipped to support the doubling of its population and the food rations become smaller and smaller, rising tension causes strain between the two groups. I have left off at this point in the story and can't wait to discover how the Emberites will resolve the conflict with Sparks and fair on their own in this foreign world!
So far, this series hasn't affected me in the way the previous books have and I can't connect it to my personal experiences. While I've not felt an emotional connection to the book like I did with Wonder, it still has great lessons to teach to our students. The book talks about war and how it happens. It could be made into an example for conflict resolution because the book tells the reader that sometimes, instead of retaliating when someone does something bad to you, you've got to do something good or nothing at all. If conflict continues it will never end and everyone will be unhappy. I think that's an important message to learn young. The story could also help explain poverty to young students. The people of Sparks and Ember experience food shortages and worry about how they will support the village, much like a lower income family could worry about feeding their family. If a child of a low income family reads the series, they could discover that their situation isn't forever and can change with hard work and perseverance.
Hi Haleigh,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I can remember reading "The City of Ember" in my Battle of the Books club in elementary school, and I have honestly thought about reading that book again as one of my books toward my twenty book challenge. I cannot remember if I have read "The People of Sparks," but from how you describe it, I think that older elementary students would find this series to be engaging. Sometimes some of the lessons you discussed can be hard to teach students, but through intertwining these lessons in one series, students can learn about topics of society while still reading a fictional story. Thanks for your post!
Haleigh,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post! I thought you did a great job pulling out potential lessons to teach your future students using this book. I think that's always something we should try to do as teachers, and I admire they way you are able to pull these lessons out. I think you connected the conflict resolution lesson especially well. This is an important lesson to keep in mind at any age, so I agree it would be helpful to learn while younger. Great job!