Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

Shadow Children: Book 1

Audience: 9 and up

Rating: A-

Synopsis:

Luke is a typical 12-year-old boy. He loves to play outside and gets frustrated with his brothers. Or Luke would be a typical 12-year-old if the very fact that he was alive wasn’t against the law, if he didn’t spend his whole life hiding, if he the Population Police wouldn’t kill him if they found out he’d been born. What is Luke’s crime? He’s a third child and families are only allowed to have two. Luke’s life changes the day he meets another ‘shadow child,’ who challenges him to fight back and protest the government’s unfair laws. Luke would love to have the rights of other citizens, but is it worth the risk?

Chatter:

(Spoiler Alerts! )
This is a great, creative story line. I’m curious to know more about why the population laws were passed and how the government is running. It’s weird and scary to figure out that this is supposed to be set in the United States. Can you imagine if our lives ever became like that?

It’s so hypocritical that the Barons have so many of the things that are denied to the regular people. It’s crazy that foods like potato chips have been banned. Stranger still that they’d stop Luke’s dad from growing plants indoors without even checking to see what sorts of plants he’s growing. If there really is a food shortage, would they stop people from raising hogs for meat and growing any type of plant?

The amount of freedom Jen was giving is amazing. While Luke’s only met five people (including Jen) and his own grandparents don’t know about him, Jen’s been shopping and has a computer with Internet access. Her risk-taking attitude may have been too much – doing things like setting off the alarm on purpose just seem foolish… what was she hoping to accomplish? I admire her courage to try organizing the protest, but there had to be a better, safer way. Maybe that is what Luke will figure out…

Questions:

How will Luke adapt to life as Lee?

Why didn’t Jen tell Luke her dad’s real job?

What can Luke do to avenge Jen’s death?

Keep reading!

-Paige

Buy Among the Hidden from Amazon