SOLVED. YA fantasy, probably read early 2000’s. It’s narrated by a child (girl?) who buys pencils for drawing or writing on the black market but they’re expensive. Also, at one point she was crawling through a tunnel, she was trying not to get caught. [s]

[Nadia]

Hey, I’ve been looking for the above book for ages and haven’t found anything, it’s been driving me crazy for a long time and I don’t know if I even finished reading it when I was younger! It doesn’t help that the only thing I can properly remember is the stuff about pencils which I don’t think was that important to the plot.

Thanks!

[Kris]

Nadia, what is the time period and location (country/region/city/town or fantasy world - what does it look like)?

Can you tell us more about the child/girl - family/friends/pets, skills/interests, personality, etc.? Who are the pencils for?

[Rosa]

The City of Ember?

[Nadia]

Hello, it may be the city of ember! I will have a read of it and come back in a couple of weeks about that, thank you!

I was going to say it’s like a fantasy and there’s not really a set time, but I remember the main character crawling through a tunnel for some reason (I thought to escape and find her friend or something) but also that the title may have included the word “amber” - it could well have been ember though

[Rainbowheart]

I'm pretty sure Rosa is right. There's a ton in the book about colored pencils.

[Rosa]

Did you find out, Nadia?

[Rosa]

Nadia?

[Nadia]

Hi sorry! I have the book but I haven’t got round to reading it recently, life got pretty hectic! It’s on my winter to read list.

[Rosa]

Okay. When you've read it, let us know if it's the one!

[Rosa]

What about now?

[Kris]

Here's the Google Books preview of The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau - Rosa's suggestion:

https://books.google.com/books?id=1x5... There are different cover images.

Quotes: Colored pencils! Lina had not seen colored pencils in any store for ages. ... She longed to have colored pencils for her pictures of the imaginary city. | Arlin just strugged. "Back into the ground, I guess. Now let's find Tunnel 97 and get to work." ... To get to Tunnel 97, they followed a complicated route through passageways lined with crusty, rusted pipes that carried water to all the buildings of Ember.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Nadia left the group but since the book seems to match I'll move to Solved.