I received an ARC of this graphic novel through NetGalley.

This is a new graphic novel version of a middle grade novel that originally published in 2003.

I loved this story. 2 young children live in a post-apocalyptic city underground that is threatened by darkness and lack of resources. The characters are kind to each other and feel realistic.

The art by Niklas Asker was lovely, both enchanting and gritty. You can feel the hope and light at the end of the novel.

A great read for kids roughly 8-16.

3.5 rounded up! I liked the style of this, but definitely liked the book better (from what I can remember from reading it 10+ years ago). I don’t remember exactly how the book ended but I wanted more from the ending in this graphic novel! And a little more exploration of how the main characters are feeling, a lot of the emotions were very surface level and fell flat. Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC!

The City of Ember (The Graphic Novel) written by Jeanne DuPrau and illustrated by Niklas Asker is being republished in 2023, the original graphic novel adaptation was done in 2012. As the lights begin to flicker, Lina finds a message from the past that she's sure holds the secret that will save the city. She and her friend Doon must race against time to decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever!

I was glad to be reminded of The City of Ember, which I remember fondly as my time working with children's book in a public and elementary school library. I was happy to explore the graphic novel version, and spend some time with it. I thought the art and story come together very well to tell the story of how society can feed and ignore corruption in turn, and that sometime the curiosity, innocence, and hope of a few can trigger needed change. The story and the art hold up well, and I think it was well done in both regards. This middle grade adventure is one that I think young readers, and us not so young, readers can still enjoy and get something from. If you loved this book the first time around, or might enjoy discovering it for the first time, it is very much worth the read.

I have read the original novel of The City of Ember twice, once in 2012ish and once in 2016 after watching the movie. I have also read the second book of the series The People of Sparks and honestly I have only a vague recollection from the first book and zero from book two. I was lucky enough to get this graphic novel to read with my youngest child (age 7) and I let him rate this graphic novelization.

According to the young human, this is "5 million times good". There is nothing he didn't like and he like absolutely everything about it. He loved the art work, especially all the faces that baby Poppy made. He didn't want to stop reading and was able to read the dialogue fairly easily.

I feel like in the graphic novelization you loose some of the heart of the story as well as some of the danger these kids faced while trying to find the way out of Ember. However, for the story we are given we do get the overall grasp of what occurs in the original novel.

As a teacher, this is a good adaptation of the City of Ember into a graphic novel. The graphic novel covers the basic framework of the actual book. This could be a great way to get the students interested in reading either the real book or the rest of the series. Graphic novels are prevalent so I was excited to see this converted. I hope they continue with the rest of the series.

Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝔼𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣
𝓖𝓻𝓪𝓹𝓱𝓲𝓬 𝓝𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵
𝑱𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆 𝑫𝒖𝑷𝒓𝒂𝒖
𝒜𝒹𝒶𝓅𝓉ℯ𝒹 𝒷𝓎 𝒟𝒶𝓁𝓁𝒶𝓈 ℳ𝒾𝒹𝒹𝒶𝓊ℊ𝒽
Ḁr̥t̥ b̥y̥ N̥i̥k̥l̥ḁs̥ Ḁs̥k̥e̥r̥
144 pages

This is the first graphic novel I’ve read. I thought I’d try it because The City of Ember is one of my favorite books. I am a retired teacher and read this book for years with my fourth graders, sometimes three groups a day. That means I have read The City of Ember many times.

This graphic novel hits on the key points of the story. It was a super quick read too.

I find it tough to judge it when I’m so familiar with the whole story. If I wasn’t, I think it would’ve been read with a different mindset.

I think it is an excellent read for those that are into graphic novels. It suggests this book for ages 8-12 years. That seems appropriate.

Artwork is such a huge part of graphic novels. I am not a huge fan of these portrayals of the characters. Again, I have a specific picture in my head as I have seen the movie repeatedly. The artwork is well done and probably feels different to a fan of GN. I also think it would be better seeing the pictures in a physical book. I saw them in an ebook.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.

The entire book is a greenish grey hue interspersed with yellow light and inky darkness. The story is a little familiar with an evil politician, henchmen, secrets, family, death, etc. This adaptation helps bring the story to life and I hope they continue with adapting the other three books into graphic novels.

I enjoyed Jeanne DuPrau's Ember series from the release of the first book. I was an older teen when the series started, but it came out during that dystopia trend in YA/middle grade lit and I was devouring all of it.

Middaugh's adaptation is skint. It's not an overly complicated story but I felt like it could have used another 20 pages to show some character growth. The comic goes like this: welcome to an underground city called Ember, the power is failing, supplies are dwindling, kids are put to work while kids, two kids who are maybe friends switch jobs but we don't know if they're friends because we are told nothing about them and little time is spent with them, etc More of the background could've been given via the art, so that the panels could've focused more on the kids and their story.

I found it about as satisfying as the film adaptation. It hits most of its beats and I think (hope) any kid reading this will be inspired by the mystery left by its cliffhanger to try out the novels.

I still enjoy this story - it's a great middle grade entry-point to dystopian literature.

I loved this book as a kid and it was so fun to revisit it so many years later in a graphic novel format! This is one of the first dystopian books I remember reading and loving and it really sparked my love for the genre. The story was really compelling and the art added a nice touch. It was fast-paced and exciting as Lina and Doon uncovered the secrets of their city. I can’t wait for the next books in the series to come out in graphic novel form!

A fun graphic novel version of the City of Ember novel. This version will help readers visualize the story more and support readers who may struggle with the complexity of the original novel. The dark illustrations align with the tone of the book and will engage readers immediately. Great for MG readers and beyond!

I have read The City of Ember novel twice now and I think the graphic novel hit on all the most important parts. It did feel kind of short but overall the plot points felt covered.
The artwork was ok, it wasn't my personal favorite, but I do think it was a good fit for the story.
I've always thought the premise of this story was very interesting. There is a community of people living in the city of Ember. There is nothing besides the city. Outside the city is just darkness forever. The food is starting to run out, the electricity goes out in the whole city more often and other supplies are dwindling. Main character Lina finds a paper she thinks are instructions for something, but her baby sister Poppy has torn most of the paper to shreds. Could it be instructions on how to get somewhere other than Ember?
I don't perfectly remember the whole novel, but as usually happens in graphic novel adaptations, there are some things that get left out. While I did say it seemed like all the main plot points were covered, I did feel it was missing a little bit of body. Since I already read the novel, I had a good feel for the atmosphere, I feel like someone new to this series might want a little bit more.
Overall, I think it did the novel justice. The novel is worth checking out for more atmosphere!

The City of Ember graphic novel is just like the chapter book. I loved being able to see all the characters I imagined while reading the original book. I hope that the rest of the series will be turned into graphic novels because my students will love it.

This was okay. I didn't really remember a lot about the book, since it had been years since I'd read it. It felt like a graphic summary, which might entice readers to go back and read the original. I didn't like that the only fat character is the Mayor, who is evil. I get that he is hoarding food and other items, but the main clue that he is evil is that he is so obese. It's a stereotype, lazy and fatphobic. I'm sure it was common when the original was written, but without images, I remembered that the Mayor was evil but not that he was fat. The illustrator had the opportunity to do better and chose not to.

This short graphic novel packed a bit of a punch. It held quite the message for those of us searching and hoping for more than what the eye can see. An excellent message!

Great graphic novel! Loved the journey the kids took to get through the mystery of their world. Fascinating, great illustrations, and will definitely get it for our library! Also, makes me want to read the books.

I love this adaptation so much! I taught City of Ember for many years in the classroom. I stepped away after a few years to switch things up, but I would absolutely bring it back and add this graphic novel to the work. It accurately depicts the plot and the characters with all the high points. There are pieces missing, but I think that's where the real work in the classroom would begin for me. I will definitely be sharing this with my own children and my students. I loved it!

While I enjoyed the boom, I feel like it needed more. It really seemed like an extremely condensed version of the full novel.

I am a big City of Ember fan from its original publication so I was excited to see how it would be adapted into a graphic novel. And this does not disappoint! The artwork is spot on and the color choice fits perfectly with the feel of the book. This really brings the story to life and should draw in any readers who might have difficulty picturing the world the author created in the original text-only version. I highly recommend this for school and classroom libraries!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Graphic for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

5/5 stars
This is a wonderful translation into a visual format from the original novel. The plot flowed beautifully and the art helped the story develop. Excellent graphic novel adaptation!

This wasn't the best novel adaption into a graphic novel. The original book has so many more details that seem left out in the graphic version. I think the first two pages give you some background information but then after that the rest of the novel is just dialogue so some of the story just seems to be missing. That said I could still see this being used in a classroom to show the difference between the novel and the graphic version and to discuss the differences and see how much more you find out in the novel that you have to guess at in the graphic novel. OR even comparing the graphic novel to the movie in the same way. However, just using this graphic novel alone in class doesn't make sense to me. This is such a cool story and I just think more could have been done with it in this adaption.