50 Fun Facts About The City of Ember

In The City of Ember, for about how long did the Builders intend people to stay in the city?

200 years was the plan, but the instructions for leaving went astray. By the time Lina and Doon find them, Ember has run decades past its limit and is falling apart.

In The City of Ember, who chews up the Builders' instructions before anyone can read them?

Poppy, Lina's toddler sister, gets at the open box while Granny empties a closet and treats the paper as a snack. Lina has to rebuild the document from torn, half-eaten scraps.

Which job does Lina Mayfleet gladly take after swapping Assignment Day jobs with Doon Harrow?

Messenger was the job Doon had been given and hated. He takes Lina's Pipeworks post instead, hoping to study the failing generator up close.

Which two unfamiliar items do Lina and Doon find in boxes in the hidden room beside Ember's river?

Candles and matches mean nothing to them at first, because Ember has never had a light that can be carried. Once lit, they show the pair a boat and its paddles.

What is Mayor Cole secretly doing in the Pipeworks room that Doon Harrow stumbles upon?

Hoarding stolen supplies is the mayor's private answer to Ember's shortages. Doon finds him dozing in a chair, surrounded by food and clothes, while the city goes without.

Which American author wrote The City of Ember, the first of four novels about the buried city?

Jeanne DuPrau had been a teacher, an editor and a technical writer before the novel came out in 2003. Three more Books of Ember followed it.

Which actor plays Mayor Cole in the 2008 film adaptation City of Ember?

Bill Murray took the role of Ember's mayor in a cast that also included Tim Robbins and Martin Landau. At the premiere he said the story spoke to anyone feeling a little lost.

In The City of Ember, which two groups did the Builders choose as the city's first residents?

Older adults and babies went down together, each elderly couple raising two infants. The children were never to be told about the world their guardians had left behind.

What is the first natural light Lina and Doon see when they emerge from the tunnel above Ember?

The moon is up when they step out, and they take it for a strange silver lamp. Only later does the sky brighten into the first sunrise either of them has ever seen.

In The City of Ember, what does Lina Mayfleet buy with money meant for a new coat for Granny?

Colored pencils are a rare luxury in Ember, and Lina pays ten dollars for just two. While she lingers over them her little sister wanders off, and the treat ends up making her feel ashamed.

In The City of Ember, which mayor took the Builders' box home and tried to break it open?

The seventh mayor was dying and hoped the box held a cure. He only dented it, then died before telling anyone, and it sat forgotten in a closet in the home of Lina's family.

In The City of Ember, what does the shop kept by Lina Mayfleet's grandmother sell?

Yarn is Granny's trade: she unravels worn-out clothes so the thread can be knitted and woven again. With goods running low in Ember, old things are reused until they fall apart.

In The City of Ember, what do citizens call the pitch-black land beyond the city's trash heaps?

The Unknown Regions defeat every explorer, because Ember has no lamp a person can carry. One clerk who tries comes back sobbing, afraid the dark could hide deep pits or huge rats.

Which Ember storeroom worker sends Lina Mayfleet to Mayor Cole with word of a delivery at eight?

Looper turns out to be the mayor's partner in a scheme Lina and Doon later uncover. He also keeps a shop, where he sells Lina two scarce treats at a steep price.

In The City of Ember, which group insists the Builders will come back to rescue the city?

The Believers meet in the streets, sure that help is coming. Lina's own captain is one of them, which is why she waves away the torn document and tells Lina to stop worrying.

Which gardener realises the torn title of Lina Mayfleet's document says 'Instructions for Egress'?

Clary spots that the fragment is the start of 'Egress', an old word for a way out. She had already told Lina she was not sure Ember was the only lit place in the dark.

The green worm that Doon Harrow keeps in a box in The City of Ember finally emerges as what?

A moth breaks out of the cocoon on the very morning Doon packs to leave. Watching it fly off, he thinks of the word egress and feels he has seen something marvellous.

Which yearly Ember celebration do Lina and Doon first plan to use to announce the way out?

The Singing brings the whole city together once a year to perform three great anthems of Ember. Wanted posters ruin the plan, and Lina hears the crowd from a hiding place instead.

At the very end of The City of Ember, who finds the bundle that lands at her feet?

Mrs. Murdo, the kindly neighbour who took in Lina and her little sister after Granny died, picks it up. The book ends as she starts to untie it, leaving Ember's rescue to the sequel.

Which actress plays Lina Mayfleet in the 2008 film adaptation City of Ember?

Saoirse Ronan earned an Irish Film and Television Award nomination for the part. The New York Times felt the film wasted her talent, calling her the brilliant young actress from Atonement.

In The City of Ember, what does Lina Mayfleet's captain decide the pieced-together document must be?

An old recipe is her guess, because one scrap mentions a small steel pan. She tells Lina to throw the thing away and trust that help is on its way.

Piecing the Builders' paper together, what does Lina Mayfleet first assume the fragment 'Egres' is?

Someone's name is her first guess, as if the paper were instructions for a person called Egres. In fact the word is a clipped piece of an old term for a way out.

Which gift from Ember's head gardener does Lina Mayfleet keep in a pot and watch for signs of life?

A bean seed holds life inside it, the gardener says, though nobody knows what life is. By the time Lina learns the mayor's secret, hers has sprouted.

Which fruit, one Lina Mayfleet has heard of but never tasted, does Lizzie Bisco offer her?

Pineapple was a treat Granny tasted as a child, when the storerooms were still full. Lina is tempted, then refuses, deciding it is wrong for a few people to keep the good things for themselves.

What do the wanted posters in The City of Ember accuse Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow of doing?

Spreading rumors is the charge, invented after the two take what they know about the mayor to guards who turn out to be on his side. The posters even offer a reward.

When the lights fail as Mayor Cole scolds her in The City of Ember, where does Lina Mayfleet flee?

Onto the roof she goes, a spot she knows from her first day at work. From up there she watches the whole city fall dark and rethinks leaving her little sister behind.

Which mark on a riverside stone in the Pipeworks shows Lina and Doon where to climb down?

A letter E marks the stone, and beside it a ladder drops to a ledge next to the water. Doon had already noticed grooves by the river that looked almost like writing.

What is found at the pool where Ember's river ends, left by one of the city's first residents?

A diary, wrapped up and left by the path, tells them how Ember began. Its writer kept it in secret, guessing that one day somebody would need to know.

In The City of Ember, which supply does a generator worker warn Doon Harrow may run out first?

Light bulbs are the supply he fears most, since a working generator is useless with nothing left to switch on. Lina has already noticed streets where dead lamps are never replaced.

Which staple crop in Ember's gardens is being ruined by a new disease in The City of Ember?

Potatoes are turning black-leaved, runny and foul, and nobody in the gardens knows why. Losing a staple on top of emptying storerooms shows Ember is failing in more ways than its lights.

Lina and Doon's childhood friendship ended in The City of Ember after Doon fell while climbing what?

A light pole was the dare, and Doon swore he would reach the top before he lost his grip and landed with his legs in the air. Lina laughed, he lost his temper, and the two were no longer friends.

After a crushing first day in the Pipeworks, what does Doon Harrow hurl that strikes his father?

A shoe heel flies at the door just as his father walks in, catching him on the ear. His father does not scold him, but later warns that anger brings consequences nobody intended.

Nursing Granny in The City of Ember, what colour does Lina Mayfleet give the sky in her drawing?

Blue is her choice, though everyone in Ember knows the sky is black. She has no idea why it feels right, and the truth waits far above her head.

Which novel continues the story of Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow straight after The City of Ember?

The People of Sparks follows the refugees from Ember to a struggling village on the surface, where food is short and tempers fray. It came out a year after the first book.

In which city was the film City of Ember shot, inside a former shipyard paint hall?

Belfast's Harland and Wolff yard, in the Titanic Quarter, lent its vast paint hall for the set. An entire lamplit city was built indoors there for a 16-week shoot.

Which Hollywood star's company Playtone bought the film rights to The City of Ember in 2004?

Tom Hanks and his producing partner Gary Goetzman paid a mid-six-figure sum for the rights, a year after the book came out. Their deal also took an option on the sequel.

City of Ember was director Gil Kenan's live-action follow-up to which animated debut film?

Monster House was Kenan's enjoyable cartoon debut, in Variety's words. Its reviewer found his move to live action good-looking but no more than serviceable.

Which creature, absent from the book, hunts Lina and Doon in the 2008 film City of Ember?

A giant mole, a monstrous star-nosed one, chases the pair in the film. It gets the last word too, devouring the mayor once panic breaks out in the city.

In 2012, The City of Ember was adapted again, this time in which format?

A graphic novel arrived nine years after the book, letting readers see Ember's lamplit streets on the page. Dallas Middaugh adapted the text and Niklas Asker drew the art.

On Assignment Day in The City of Ember, how does each graduating student receive a first job?

Pulling a slip from a bag held by the mayor decides it, so chance alone can send a twelve-year-old to the tunnels. The job is theirs for three years before any change is considered.

Which Assignment Day job was Doon Harrow's first choice, ahead of even the Pipeworks?

Electrician's helper was the post he wanted, but the classmate who got it refused to swap. The Pipeworks came second because it would at least put him near the generator.

In The City of Ember, what keeps the Builders' box of instructions sealed until the planned moment?

A timed lock was set to click open by itself when the city's time was up. It did exactly that, but in the back of a closet where nobody was waiting to see.

In The City of Ember, what does Doon Harrow record in the notebook he keeps at home?

Sketches of bugs fill its pages, along with careful notes on each creature he catches. Most of his captives die within days, which is why one thriving green worm fascinates him.

Where in Ember did Lina Mayfleet's late father work, a place she still visits with mixed feelings?

The greenhouses were his workplace, where he used to tinker with the sprinklers. Lina spent much of her childhood there, and tending the plants helped her through her grief when he died.

After Doon Harrow's discouraging first day in the Pipeworks, what does his father advise him to do?

Pay close attention, his father says, because then he will know things nobody else knows. The advice pays off when Doon's wanderings turn up a roped-off tunnel with a mysterious door.

Resting where the river ends, what do Lina and Doon realise they failed to leave behind in Ember?

Their escape note, meant to tell the city where the boats were, is still with Lina. With no way back up the river, the pair must find another way to reach the people left below.

In The City of Ember, what lights the city's streets from six in the morning until nine at night?

Flood lamps fixed to buildings and poles are Ember's only daylight, and when they switch off the dark is total. Lately they have begun failing in the middle of the day.

In The City of Ember, the head gardener tells Lina the darkness inside people shows itself as what?

Greed is the darkness she means, a craving that only grows as it is fed. Lina recognises it at once, remembering her own hunger for something she could not really afford.

Which studio known for children's book adaptations made the 2008 film City of Ember with Playtone?

Walden Media built its name on filming children's books, with Holes, Bridge to Terabithia and three Chronicles of Narnia films among its releases. The Ember film earned back only about a third of its budget.

In The City of Ember, what colour is the jacket Lina Mayfleet must always wear while working?

Red makes the wearer easy to spot in a crowd, so anyone who needs her can flag her down. Lina pictured herself in that jacket before she had even left the classroom.