The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau is a creative and interesting take on the Dystopian genre. Friends Lina and Doon and the rest of their city are starting to worry. Their refuge from the darkness, the city of Ember, is built underground as a desperate attempt to save at least some members of the human race from a coming disaster. This is made clear to the reader through backstory as well as foreshadowing, using the reader's understanding of life above ground.

The two friends and their whole city, not aware of anything else, all live comfortably beneath the electric lamps that give their city light as their ancestors have done for 200 years. But then the lights start to flicker, and they know there are not many supplies left in the once expansive store rooms beneath the city. But surely the Founders didn't leave them with no way to find another city if their supplies of lightbulbs dwindles to nothing? Then one day, after an especially long blackout, Lina finds her little sister chomping on an old piece of parchment that has old writing on it. It came out of a mysterious, old looking box. With Doon's help, and the help of some others, will Lina figure out what it means? And what if it is the instructions for them to find a way out of their slowly dying city?