Finding A Book

[calliopes_pen]

seandc thought I should post his question to my friends list, since everyone always seems to be great at finding the names of shows and books. (And because mine is bigger than his.) Maybe you can help this time, too.

"Once again about 1990/91ish I read a book. Anyway, I can't remember the title or author, but remember the cover had the two main characters emerging from a tunnel-hatch into the earth. The story was about a girl growing up in an underground world (humanity had moved to shelters generations before), where reading had fallen out of favour, and now was banned - the people were just expected to watch tv all day for entertainment.

However, the girl's grandmother had taught her to read with a book rescued from landfill, and she was finding it harder and harder to hide her reading from the authorities. So she escapes through the long-since disused access tunnels. She makes a friend along the way, and emerges topside to find a whole new civilisation on top of hers, that neither knew about the other. Her friend actually came from the true outside of either sets of shelters, and eventually they got back to his farm home."

Anyone know what this would be? If nobody can think of what this one is, I'll try whatwasthatone, and whatwasthatbook.

Comments

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

That sounds a LOT like Surreal 3000, except it's hard to tell, because I've never read the english translation, and it's beeen a long, long, long time.

[jhovall.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds like an interesting read! Would definitely like to read it when you do find out the title and author. =)

[calliopes_pen]

Thanks to whatwasthatbook, we found it. It was called "This Time of Darkness" by H. M. Hoover.

[mandylynn4.livejournal.com]

The scary thing is that this story sounds VERY much like a new young adult novel that's circulating around..."The City of Ember." I know this isn't the same book, but damn, it's so close that I'm afraid that maybe the author of this new book read that one before and borrowed ideas.

See, in "City of Ember," the people live underground, but they don't know that they live underground. The city lives on a huge generator, which is going out, and on canned goods, which are slowly depleting. The children are given specific jobs (think, The Giver) at the age of 12 and two of these kiddos end up discovering a way out of Ember through tunnels. The two risk everything, but end up on the top of the earth - looking down at their town. Thus, became the sequel, "The People of Sparks," where the two kids lead their city up out of the ground and encounter a farming community of scared, hateful people.

It's a good series, but like I said, this sounds pretty close to what you're looking for...and it's new. I wonder if Jeanne DuPrau (the author) knows about the book you're looking for...

Mandylynn