The People of Sparks (2004) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

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• Lina Mayfleet: The main heroine of the story. Often gets herself into trouble. best friends with Doon
• Doon Harrow: Lina's best friend
• Poppy: Lina's younger sister. She gets very sick early on in the story.
• Mary Waters: One of the three leaders of Sparks. Kinder than Ben and wants to try and help the people from Ember.
• Ben Barlow: One of the three leaders of Sparks. Harsher on the people of Ember and doesn't want them in his town.
• Wilmer Dent: One of the three leaders of Sparks. Hesitant with most decisions and tends to be in the middle.
• Torren Crane: The Sparks denizen troublemaker which fans the flames of discord between the People of Ember and the People of Sparks.
• Mrs. Murdo: Lina's neighbour from Ember, who took her and Poppy into her home.
• Tick Hassler: A strong willed young man who was a hauler in Ember
• Dr. Hester: The very busy Doctor in the Village of Sparks
• Maddy: A young woman from another village
• Caspar: The eldest boy who lived with Dr Hester before leaving home
• Martha Parton: Family that Doon his father are living with. They do not live with the Parton family, but the Parton family is in charge of feeding them at lunch and dinner times.
• Clary Laine: She use to run the greenhouse back in the city of Ember. When she got to Sparks she set up a garden that little children would help her tend to and take care of.
• Edward Pocket: The town librarian. The library has been used a store house the books have been burned for firewood with a dwindling supply. Kenny shows Doon these books and soon Doon sets up a job for Edward to sort through and organize all of the books.
• Kenny Parton: Doon's friend who is one of the people of sparks.
• Mrs. Polster: Add a description of this character.
• Lister Munk
• Lizzie Bisco: Lina's best friend in Ember. She starts to like Tick Hassler in this book.
• Pelton Moss
• Sadge Merrall
• Kensington: Kenny gets to be Doon's friend and is one of the people of sparks.
• Sal Ramirez
• Looper: Used to be Lizzie's boyfriend in Ember but fell in the river leading to Spark and died.
• Ordney Parton
• Allie Bright
• Miss Thorn
• Mackie
• Chugger Frisk: Mean, tough guy who gets mad and annoyed easily with Doon.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Lina the Brave!”

  Doon Harrow

• “Shall we forgive each other?”

  Lina Mayfeet to Doon Harrow

• “You turned a crazy old guy into an enemy in less than two minutes. You did it. You've done it over and over, I've seen you: you approach people like an enemy and bam!, they turn into one, whether they were to begin with or not." "It's my policy to be ready to defend myself," Caspar said, scowling. "At any moment." . . . . "If you ask me, making friends is a better defense than making enemies.”

  Maddy and Caspar

• “It's much harder to be good than bad.”

  Lina quoting Maddy

• “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. "Strength to Love," 1963”

  Martin Luther King Jr.

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “If you ask me, making friends is a better defense than making enemies.”

  Highlighted by 129 Kindle customers

• “People didn’t make life, so they can’t destroy it. Even if we were to wipe out every bit of life in the world, we can’t touch the place life comes from. Whatever made plants and animals and people spring up in the first place will always be there, and life will spring up again.”

  Highlighted by 121 Kindle customers

• “When people have been mean to you, why would you want to be good to them?” “You wouldn’t want to,” Maddy said. “That’s what makes it hard. You do it anyway. Being good is hard. Much harder than being bad.”

  Highlighted by 105 Kindle customers

• “Instead of getting back at the other side with something just as bad as they did to you—or something worse—you do something good. Or at least you keep yourself from doing something bad.” She took another bite of the apple. “I think that’s it. One bad thing after another leads to worse things. So you do a good thing, and that turns it around.”

  Highlighted by 98 Kindle customers

• “Remember the city, the city remember, Where treasure is hidden under the ground. The city, the city, always remember, That’s where the treasure will be found.”

  Highlighted by 77 Kindle customers

• Plah-zuh. Lina had never heard that word before. It was her first new-world word.

  Highlighted by 72 Kindle customers

• “There’s buried treasure in the ancient city. Remember, remember from times of old. What’s hidden will come to light again. It’s far more precious than diamonds and gold.

  Highlighted by 65 Kindle customers

• Most of them were scrawny and pale, like the sprouts you see when you lift up a board that’s been lying on the ground, feeble things that have tried to grow in the dark.

  Highlighted by 64 Kindle customers

• I got rid of them fast with a few well-placed lashes.” Caspar sliced his arm through the air, as if he were cracking a whip. “And a good thing, too,” he went on, “because not far from there I located another special thing—several boxes of authentic, pre-Disaster arti-ficial flowers. They are made of very fine cloth, hardly faded at all.” “Artificial flowers?” said Lina, wondering why the people of Sparks would want fake flowers

  Highlighted by 41 Kindle customers

• a tremendous plant of some kind—a great pole, much higher than the building, with branches like graceful, down-sweeping arms and leaves like bristles.

  Highlighted by 33 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Ember
• Sparks

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Peace: Describe this theme.
• Tolerance and Acceptance
• Cooperation
• Hatred
• Fighting
• Distrust

Errata edit see section history

List any errors found in this book with their corrections.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The City of Ember, and followed by The Prophet of Yonwood.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Jeanne DuPrau (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Chris Riely (Designer) - Jacket Designer

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ7.D927
• Dewey: 813.6

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Children's Books › Authors & Illustrators, A-Z › ( D ) › Duprau, Jeanne
• Books › Children's Books › Literature › Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror › Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
• Books › Children's Books › Literature › Action & Adventure
• Books › Children's Books › Ages 9-12

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Jeanne Duprau Author of the Books of Ember