We made it back safe. The travel-by-night plan was tough, but with the kids asleep the trip only took us 8 hours instead of 11.

For the trip I borrowed the audio book The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne Duprau from the library. This is the prequel to The City of Ember and The People of Sparks. Both Ember and Sparks were fun books. Gina and I read them out loud to each other a couple years ago. I liked the situations, the characters, and the mysteries in both. But Duprau gets a bit preach in Yonwood. This is actually the third time we tried to read/listen to this book; I think that’s because the book starts off slow (which means she used too much description in the beginning without . It felt like Duprau has some serious questions about God (which is great) and she uses this book to sort them out (which is lame). There wasn’t a strong connection between this prequel and her other two books.

Apparently, the fourth book in the series is coming out in August called The Diamond of Darkhold. The blurb looks good, so I’m not giving up on Duprau. The next book picks up where Sparks left off, so hopefully Duprau will stick to story and tone down the preaching.