Among the Imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix

June 19th, 2008 at 9:10am |

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Audience: 9 and up

Rating: B

Synopsis:

Luke is now Lee Grant, a name he can’t get used to in a school where nothing seems normal to him. There’s too many people, too many rooms, and he’s expected to act like he belongs when until recently the only people who he’d met were his parents and two brothers. While Luke is working to figure out the school, he figures something else out as well… there are other shadow children in its classrooms. Has Luke finally found a play were he is safe to be himself?

Chatter:

(Spoiler Alerts! )
I can imagine Luke’s confusion at Hendricks School for Boys – I was confused just reading about it. It seemed so odd that Luke was just dropped in the middle of this crazy school without a schedule, orientation, or any other assistance. How can the teachers not notice if Luke’s showing up in the right classes or even showing up at all? It wasn’t until the end when we learned that many of the other students are autistic or agoraphobic and that the staff is chosen for their ineptness or sympathy to third children that the school begins to make sense.

It’s crazy to think how difficult it must be for third children to adjust to a life in society. Jen seemed so normal that it was easy to forget the she was NOT the typical third child. Luke, even though he didn’t know a lot of people, had the advantage of growing up on a farm and being outside for much of his youth. When some of the shadow children at the school talk about having spent their whole lives inside of a room, it gave me the creeps! No wonder shadow children often accidentally give themselves away when they are brought to Hendricks. The advice Mr. Talbot gave Luke was to ‘blend it’ but he should have given him a phone-book-thick instruction manual on how!