The People of Sparks is the second of four science fiction novels in the highly lauded Book of Ember series, written by Jeanne DuPrau. Published in 2004, The People of Sparks follows Lina and Doon, the protagonists of The City of Ember, as they attempt to help the people of Ember navigate the post-apocalyptic surface world. This middle grade novel explores ideas of communities, the cyclical nature of violence and war, and the importance of finding one’s purpose. This study guide references the Kindle e-book version of the novel.

In The City of Ember, Lina and Doon are two 12-year-old children living in the underground city of Ember. The over 200-year-old city was constructed to keep humanity safe during an apocalypse, but Lina and Doon discover that their generator is failing, and the Emberites must leave their dwelling and return to the Earth’s surface for the first time.

Plot Summary

The People of Sparks is set on the surface of the Earth in a post-apocalyptic world. The novel is told from a third-person limited point of view, and it primarily switches between Lina and Doon.

Hundreds of years after the “Disaster,” a series of four wars and three plagues, humanity has begun to rebuild. When the people of Ember emerge from their dying city, they come across the town of Sparks. The people who made it out of Ember outnumber the existing population of Sparks, but the town leaders, hoping to avoid the sins of the corrupt pre-disaster leaders, decide to allow the Emberites to stay and learn for six months. Most of the Emberites stay in the Pioneer, an abandoned hotel on the outskirts of town.

Doon and the rest of the able-bodied Emberites are split into groups to do manual labor around the town. Tick Hassler, a young Emberite man who has been fomenting discontent among the Emberites, befriends Doon.

The novel also follows the perspective of Torren, a 10-year-old Sparks boy. Several weeks after the Emberites arrive, Torren’s brother, Caspar, briefly returns. He is a roamer, someone who travels between the few settlements in the area, scavenging useful materials from the abandoned pre-Disaster buildings that remain in the Empty Lands. Caspar always brings back novelties rather than anything useful and pays little attention to Torren, but Torren idolizes him, nonetheless. Caspar has joined with Maddy, a woman from a failing settlement in the area. When Lina overhears that Caspar and Maddy are travelling to the nearby city next, she decides to stow away and go with them in hopes of finding the city she has always dreamed of and a place for the Emberites to call home.

Tensions continue to rise in Sparks; Tick writes degrading remarks about the Emberites on walls and blames it on the people of Sparks, while Torren wastes food in a rage and blames it on Doon. With each group accusing the other, and Tick working behind the scenes to increase mistrust, the leaders of the town decide that the people of Ember must leave early. Tick encourages the Emberites to fight back, and Doon realizes that Tick is inciting violence unnecessarily.

Caspar reveals to Maddy and Lina that he believes he has deduced the location of a treasure told of in ancient songs. The city is far more ruined than any of them imagined, and neither Lina nor Maddy trust or believe Caspar. Lina and Maddy leave Caspar and travel back toward Sparks. When Lina hears the ancient songs that Caspar mentioned, she realizes that the “buried treasure” is the Emberites.

When Lina returns to Sparks, she and Doon reconcile the distance that was growing between them. Neither is sure what to do, but they know that neither fighting nor leaving are the right choice. During the ultimate confrontation between Sparks and Ember, a pre-Disaster weapon backfires and sets fire to the Plaza. Doon saves Torren from the blaze. Lina ends the cycle of revenge by facing her fears and helping the people of Sparks fight the fire. The rest of the Emberites (besides Tick and his cronies) follow.

Working together, the people of Sparks and the Emberites save the town. Afterward, Lina and Doon realize Torren and Tick’s treachery. The leaders of Sparks admit that they were wrong and invite the Emberites to stay and join the town as official members of Sparks.

At the end of the novel, Caspar briefly returns with a box of lightbulbs. Doon builds an electric motor with a magnet Lina brought back from the Empty Lands, and they light the ancient lightbulb.