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The Prophet of Yonwood (The City of Ember Book 4) Kindle Edition

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,029 ratings

A prequel to the modern-day classic The City of Ember. This highly acclaimed adventure series has captivated kids and teachers alike for almost fifteen years and has sold over 3.5 MILLION copies!
 
Nickie will grow up to be one of the first citizens of the city of Ember. But for now, she’s an eleven-year-old girl whose father was sent away on some mysterious government project.
 
So when the opportunity to move presents itself, Nickie seizes it. But her new town of Yonwood, North Carolina, isn’t what she’d anticipated. It’s a place full of suspicion and mistrust, where one person’s visions of fire and destruction have turned the town’s citizens against each other. Nickie explores the oddities around her—her great-grandfather’s peculiar journals, a reclusive neighbor who studies the heavens, a strange boy who is fascinated with snakes—all while keeping an eye out for ways to help the world. Or is it already too late to avoid a devastating war?
 
Praise for the City of Ember books:

Nominated to 28 State Award Lists!
An American Library Association Notable Children’s Book
A New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing Selection
A Kirkus Reviews Editors’ Choice
A Child Magazine Best Children’s Book
A Mark Twain Award Winner
A William Allen White Children’s Book Award Winner
 
“A realistic post-apocalyptic world. DuPrau’s book leaves Doon and Lina on the verge of undiscovered country and readers wanting more.” —
USA Today
 
“An electric debut.” —
Publishers Weekly, Starred
 
“While Ember is colorless and dark, the book itself is rich with description.” —
VOYA, Starred
 
“A harrowing journey into the unknown, and cryptic messages for readers to decipher.” —
Kirkus Reviews, Starred

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8–In this prequel to The City of Ember (2003) and The People of Sparks (2004, both Random), 11-year-old Nickie accompanies her aunt to Yonwood, NC, to help get her great-grandfather's house ready to be sold. Months earlier, a woman in the community named Althea Tower had a vision and collapsed, muttering about fire and disaster. The townspeople interpreted it as a premonition of events since war between the U.S. and the Phalanx Nations is eminent. Althea is hailed as a Prophet and an ambitious Mrs. Beeson appoints herself Althea's interpreter. Soon she's urging everyone to give up sinful things like singing. The townspeople believe that by being virtuous they will build a shield of goodness around themselves and not be harmed. In her effort to be a good person, Nickie falls prey to this collective brainwashing and betrays a friend. She has her own secret. She's hiding a dog in the house. When Mrs. Beeson thinks the Prophet has said no dogs and forces everyone to get rid of them, the child is outraged and confronts the Prophet to demand the truth behind her pronouncements. This novel has a great deal of immediacy in light of current world events. It sharply brings home the idea of people blindly following a belief without questioning it. However, it's really more of a stand-alone title. The plot details that tie it and Ember together are only revealed in the last chapter, entitled What Happened Afterward.–Sharon Rawlins, NJ Library for the Blind and Handicapped, Trenton
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 4--7. Set about 50 years before the previous books in the Embers series, this novel focuses on 11-year-old Nickie, who believes her great-grandfather's old mansion in Yonwood, North Carolina, may be a haven from the city wracked with fear of impending war. Unfortunately, the place isn't exactly idyllic. Nickie's experiences in Yonwood further the idea, established in the previous books, about the role of God in human affairs. Why, for example, would God say one thing to the Prophet of Yonwood and another to a prophet halfway around the world?--a provocative question that is certainly apropos to what is happening in the world today. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000QCS932
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House Books for Young Readers; Reissue edition (May 9, 2006)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 9, 2006
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2615 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 306 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0440421241
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,029 ratings

About the author

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Jeanne DuPrau
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Jeanne DuPrau is the author of The New York Timesbestseller The City of Ember and its companion The People of Sparks. She lives in Menlo Park, California, and drives a hybrid car that runs on a combination of gas and electricity.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
2,029 global ratings

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Horrible Backwards Binding
1 out of 5 stars
Horrible Backwards Binding
The book is bound upside down and backwards. To read the book one would have to turn it upside down and flip the pages from left to right, reading the right page first then the left page. I paid a premium for hardcover but I am sold junk.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2013
    This book is actually quite good. The characters are realistic and you can relate to them throughout the story. I like that they put this book 3rd because it was interesting to take a break from Lina and Doon and get to meet more interesting characters. I know people say this book is horrible, but in my opinion it's GREAT. If you liked The City Of Ember and The People of Sparks, you should give this book a chance.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2013
    This book is set pre-apocalypse, before the first book City of Ember. It doesn't really spend too much time on the event itself which drove the Ember citizens underground. Instead it focuses on problems that are real right now in our daily lives. It explains the problems in easy to understand terms for children, as well as explaining how to cope with these problems. This book covers the concept of religious extremism (in this case, some non-specified and created Christian based ethos) and how a message (perhaps divine in origin) may be misunderstood and twisted by people to further a material or personal agenda. It also covers the mass hype of modern day witch hunts, what we refer to as "terrorism". It teaches kids to think about who to talk to and what to say, and protecting your friends and family. Plus, my young son slammed the book down and started crying when they took the dogs.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2012
    I was confused by The Prophet of Yonwood at first. As the third book in the Ember series, it takes the story in another direction. It seems totally unconnected until the end of the book. The movement is a little slow and the vocabulary is at about 6th grade level, but it is an enjoyable read. It is obvious that the author has a lesson regarding ethical behavior in the book; she is fairly heavy handed with it.

    Readers under 14 years old will find this an enjoyable read. Older readers may find it somewhat plodding. However if you have read the first two books of Ember, it will add to your understanding of the end of the first book and the end of the foruth book. Otherwise, you can almost skip this book in the series. There are only two minor plot points that this book helps to connect.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2017
    This story is filled to the brim with suspense, and is absolutely amazing.! Nickie and Grover go on a local adventure, Grover being a full-time resident of Yonwood, and Nickie coming to Yonwood with her aunt to sell (or live in, she hopes). The town is obeying Brenda Breeson, who abides by Althea, the Prophet! This book is so great and I would recommend this to anyone who likes fiction at all!
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2022
    I loved it! Wow! Amazing! Great! So good! Really cool! Fantastic! Awesome! Astounding! Wow! Astonishing! Breath taking! Really.... Like .....wow
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2011
    "The Prophet of Yonwood" reminded me of the books Jane Langton wrote for the same age group -- "The Fragile Flag," for example -- about the loss of American civil liberties in an atmosphere of zealotry and fear. This book was not so well constructed, running too many skimpy story lines at once and tying them up too hastily in the last few chapters. However, DuPrau does a good job of depicting the spread of religious mania and the erosion of individual rights in one small town. She is clearly familiar with Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," and owes a creative debt to L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time," from which the girl's mysteriously absent father and the boy's pack of squalid siblings seem to be lifted.

    DuPrau's target in this prequel to the Ember series is fascist-style totalitarianism. Interestingly, her best book, the original "City of Ember," is a critique of communist-style totalitarianism, with its deadening effects on innovation and initiative. A junior high school class could do a good unit of social studies using this series for discussion material. Unfortunately, this kind of thoughtful discussion is not encouraged in our timid, testing-obsessed schools, especially when religion might be criticized.

    P.S.: Speaking of schools, how does the girl in this book get to take a few weeks off from school to visit her great-grandfather's hometown? That's harder to believe than a nuclear apocalypse.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2013
    I've watched the movie "City of Ember" and when I found out it was based off a book I was so excited and had to read it! Little did I know it was part of a four book series! If you're looking for a series that is a quick read and really makes you think, this series is for you!
  • Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2014
    I loved this whole series and so did my daughter. She is 8 but tests on a 12th grade level. It is soo hard to find age appropriate material that is complex enougj to encourage growth. This was perfect! It was a great premise and well written.

Top reviews from other countries

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  • Arturo Leon
    3.0 out of 5 stars Trama medio interesante pero nada esencial
    Reviewed in Mexico on June 23, 2021
    Es un libro que tiene una trama entretenida, sin embargo, me encontré aburrido en muchas partes. Nada comparado con los tres libros anteriores en donde a lo largo de toda la historia me mantuvo interesado. Otra cosa a considerar es que a pesar de formar parte de la saga de City of Ember el 90% de la trama no tiene nada que ver con la historia global de la saga.
  • Gate
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good value great book
    Reviewed in Canada on February 13, 2020
    My grandson so enjoyed this nook
  • Ross Palmer
    1.0 out of 5 stars Disapointing
    Reviewed in Australia on June 24, 2018
    Was expecting more on the developing of ember. Not a vertually unrelated story with a short side note at the end linking it to the originL story.
  • Spacegirlgemma
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great read in the ember series
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 7, 2014
    This is a really good story. It's hard to tell at first how the story will link into the city of ember story - you are kept guessing! It also works well as a nice stand alone story :)
  • ich-will-Kunst-die-Gefühle-weckt
    3.0 out of 5 stars 3 Sterne, wenn man das Buch als Jugendbuch deklariert
    Reviewed in Germany on October 10, 2009
    Inzwischen habe ich die ersten beiden "Books Of Ember" hinter mir - beide in der deutschen Übersetzung. Sowohl der erste Teil, als auch der zweite Teil der Serie haben mir dabei sehr gut gefallen - zu sehen, wie sich die Geschichte rund um die Bewohner von Ember entfaltet, mit welchen (gesellschaftlichen) Hürden deren neues Leben verbunden ist und wie sich nach und nach auftut, welche Hintergründe zur Entstehung der Stadt unter der Erde geführt haben.

    Als ich dann erfahren habe, dass es auch noch einen dritten und vierten Teil gibt, war ich mehr als entzückt und natürlich auch gespannt. Dass dabei das dritte Buch eine Art Prequel, also Vorgeschichte ist, stellte für mich einen cleveren Schachzug von Frau Duprau dar - endlich die ganze Vorgeschichte von Ember präsentiert zu bekommen, mehr Tiefgang, mehr Background - das war meine Hoffnung.

    Jetzt habe ich das Buch fertiggelesen und bin leider sehr, sehr enüchtert worden. Die Geschichte, die in diesem Buch erzählt wird, wird meineserachtens sehr, sehr stiefmütterlich erzählt. Die Hauptgeschichte rund um die Prophetin wird nämlich nur sehr schleppend erzählt und die meisten Kapitel handeln rein vom Erleben dieser "Zeit vor der Endzeit" aus Sicht der Hauptprotagonistin. Klar, es handelt sich hier um ein Jugendbuch - also darf man hier nicht erwarten, dass eine komplexe Geschichte im Vordergrund steht, aber trotzdem war ich sehr ernüchtert, dass die Rahmenhandlung rund um einen ständig vor dem Ausbruch stehenden Atomkrieg nicht gekonnter eingeflochten wird. Ich will hier nicht zuviel von der Story erzählen, aber bei mir weckt das Buch den Eindruck, als ob Frau Duprau desöfteren die Schreiblust verlassen hat bzw. sie einfach nicht mehr weiter wusste, wie sie am Ende des Buches die ganzen offenen Erzählstränge zusammenlaufen lassen soll. So versanden viele anfangs spannend eingeleiteten Nebenhandlungen oft in einer (aus meiner Sicht) leider etwas seichten und naiven Erklärung bzw. werden trotz riesiger Einleitung in einem Satz oder Absatz zu Ende erzählt oder aufgeklärt, was für mich stets sehr, sehr unbefriedigend ist. Besonders das letzte Kapitel ist dabei wirklich etwas abstrus. Vor diesem wird in keinster Weise irgend ein Wort von den Plänen zur Stadt Ember erwähnt - just aber dann ganz zum Schluss des Buches, auf den letzten drei, vier Seiten, wird ruckzuck schnell alles in ein paar Absätze gequetscht und dann auch noch eine schöne (wenn auch sehr offensichtliche) Verbindung zum ersten Buch geknüpft.

    Wer also - so wie ich - in dieses Buch die Hoffnung steckt, mehr über Ember und deren Ursprünge zu erfahren, der soll sich klar sein, dass er eventuell am Ende eher enttäuscht sein wird.
    Achja, nur kurz zum Buch und dessen Qualität: wie der Preis erahnen lässt, handelt es sich um ein klassich-englisches Paperback. Bitte also auch hier keine allzu großen qualitativen Ansprüche stellen - zwar hat das Titelmotiv noch eine Prägedruck, aber die eigentlichen Buchseiten scheinen auf 80g Kopierpapier gedruckt worden zu sein (Stichwort: man sieht schon fast auf der gerade gelesenen Seite die Buchstaben von dahinterliegenden durch!)

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