The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

This book was on the list of recommended reads over the summer holidays. It is always popular in the library. I decided to try it out by listening to it while doing my summer housework. It's easier to do work when your head is mostly inside a book, but this one was exceptional.  

I made potent connections to it. It is loaded with important lessons:

• It shows how our thinking can be limited by our environment and circumstances.
• It reveals how easy it is to be corrupted, and what the consequences of letting ourselves be corrupted can be.
• It points out how important it is to do what you know is the right thing irrespective of how challenging this might be. 

Mostly however, The City of Ember is a really good read.

Lina and the rest of the inhabitants of the of Ember believe that their world of darkness is the only world that exists. We're not sure how long the people have been living underground, but things are starting to get desperate. The lights go out with increasing frequency. There are escalating food and other shortages. 

Then Lina discovers a message her sister chewed on, and tries to puzzle out what it says. Together with her friend, Doon, and the help of a few others in the community, they discover that it is instructions for how to leave their city. 

I read this book after finishing Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. It isn't easy to go from a book like that to any other book, but this one stood the test. It is a great first dystopian novel. I loved that it had a satisfying ending. If I read the sequels, (which are on the summer to read list) it will be because I want to visit with these characters again, not because the novel left me hanging.