The City of Ember

Ember has always been lit by electric lights, because there’s no sun underground. Now the lights are flickering, supplies are running low, and the grown-ups are out of answers. Lina and Doon decide to stop accepting how things are and figure out how the whole city actually works.

Why we picked it

It’s a terrific “question your assumptions” story. The kids succeed not by being the strongest, but by being curious and refusing to accept “that’s just how it is.” That’s a mindset worth handing a kid — the instinct to look at a broken system and ask why.

Questions to chew on

• Everyone in Ember accepts the way things are. What makes Lina and Doon different?
• The answer they need was there the whole time, just misunderstood. Has that ever happened to you?
• When the people in charge don’t have answers, what should you do?

Good to know: a page-turner with real momentum, and clean for younger readers. First of a series.