Among the Hidden

Because of a food shortage, the government has imposed a 2 child limit for families. Luke is a third child, and has spent his life staying home and being afraid of discovery. Fortunately his family are farmers. They always have plenty of food to eat even tho they are constantly worried about how they'll meet their tax payments. Also, in his younger years he could be outside as they were isolated from neighbors. This changes as the government uses eminent domain to take their woods, cuts it down, and builds a housing project.
I like that this story will give young readers a possible future that might get them to think about the consequences of how our current food production system is progressing into megafarms without concern for the show more environmental damage it is doing. It also includes a totalitarian government, a system with privileges for the elite, and the premise that the government doesn't plan well (building houses next to a hog farm?) or makes decisions that are inept (destroying 2nd rate food instead of feeding it to pigs to produce meat).
As an adventure story, the plot just didn't make it for me. show less

"I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this" . . . I say as I turned every flippin' page!

This little novel has surprising power. It deals with a totalitarian government, and though this theme is not uncommon (ESPECIALLY in the YA books of today--by god it's a super fad), the way it's treated in this novel is very original. It's not shoved into your face or made the main theme of the novel. Instead, Luke is the focus (as he well should be!).

I can't wait to get my hands on the second . . . and I can't believe it's taken me this long to start reading these books.

Spoilers. Two and a half stars. I first read this at a friend's house early in the morning while waiting for them to wake up. I was staying the weekend, I think. Bored and wanting to be quiet and respectful of their sleep, I pulled this off the small bookshelf. It looked interesting, so I read it in one sitting. Now, I wanted to learn if I still found it as tense, thrilling and sad. I did not. I remembered all the action scenes, plot points and characters, and was kind of surprised. There was still stuff I'd forgotten, though, that was nice to rediscover. The chapters were super short, which I found annoying. I wish the writing would have been more vivid and less repetitive.

I felt bad for Luke all over again, cheered Jen and felt the show more injustice of the system. The world-building seems like stuff was left out, though, and I compared it to "The Giver": also short, but with fantastic world-building and dark and sinister even in mild moments. This...is not. Paragraphs are dedicated to stating the same characterization over and over in ways that aren't new in terms of information or in some instances, even working. I questioned repeatedly how Luke had developed such a case of learned helplessness, never once rebelling or really seeming to think it was unfair. He came across as kinda pouty at times. Jen, in contrast, had a far more active and urgent sense of agency, perhaps due to the relative privileges her family's socioeconomic status provided her at times. I get why the book was written from Luke's POV, but--Jen was more interesting and even written more realistically as a twelve-year-old. Luke's emotional growth could well have been stunted by his parents' arguable abuse and neglect, but still. Jonas from "The Giver" was also twelve, also lived in a dystopian government, and -was entirely different-. I know Luke's parents genuinely believed the government propaganda and it led to their mistreatment of Luke, but...they suck.

Jen's death was jarring, as it was when I first read the book many years ago. I've always wondered if her dad, an official for the Population Police, was solely responsible. He gets an award and isn't allowed to grieve his daughter. Luke and he have some exchanges that are a bit contrived and definitely exposition-heavy. Jen's dad arranges for Luke to leave. Luke's family, especially his mother, act genuinely sad for him to leave and I call bullshit. They adjusted -fast- when more and more efforts to hide Luke had to be made. Luke often commented on it, and I felt bad for him.

I expected a lot more from this book than I got, but that's likely because it's middle grade. It's a good introduction to dystopian books, though. show less

A very interesting look at a world in a different view - if we had population laws (only 2 children each) and population police.

I thought the book did a very good job of staying with Luke - through his struggles of not doing anything all day to him looking forward and wondering what he would eventually do all day.

I also liked that they answered the question that, as a parent I couldn't help asking - Why on earth would you have a third child and put them through that?

His mother's reply was very well done, very thought out. She didn't think it would ever really come to this. She had him when the law was just enacted - who would have thought people would stand for this?!

Add in the obvious food problem (mandatory vegetarians?) and obvious show more space issues (forest is being cut down for more housing).

I'd love to say that the world will never come to this....but....is it so ridiculous to think it won't? Scary to think about, isn't it? show less

This is the story of Luke and the law against his very existence. In this futuristic society, it is illegal for anyone to have more than two children. Here in lies Luke's story. This book truly surprised me, and enticed me. The first, let's say, two to three chapters were hard for me to wrap around and stay focused but I'm glad I hung in there and boy was it a ride. Once Luke finds out that there is another third child in his midst the story is enthralling and progresses at a beautiful pace. There was suspense and tension that kept me captivated the entire time and end of the journey. What I love most is that the book took turns that I did not think it would take at all. I thought I could guess the outcome of the book and the decisions show more that Luke would make but it did not at all and I did not expect it at all, and I loved every part of it. Like I said earlier, this book surprised me in every way possible. There are also so many great themes here for young adults to analyze and contribute in such conversations. I would definitely recommend this book to any young reader. show less

First sentence: He saw the first tree shudder and fall, far off in the distance. Then he heard his mother call out the kitchen window: "Luke! Inside. Now." He had never disobeyed the order to hide.

ETA: I really love, love, love Margaret Peterson Haddix. I enjoy rereading her books every now and then. I don't know that my library still has in its collection the whole series. But I'm going to try to read more of her books (again, again) this year.

Premise/plot: Among the Hidden is the first book in Margaret Peterson Haddix's fast-paced futuristic middle grade series. Luke Garner is a shadow child, an illegal third child; his parents are farmers in a rural community which gave him small doses of freedom--if freedom means breathing fresh show more air outside--now and then. But when the woods around his house are bulldozed to make room for more houses--or apartments--even that small bit of liberty is lost. Luke "lives" his life in the attic and on the stairs. His family fears the Population Police so much that they don't even allow Luke to eat with them in the kitchen. Things seem to be getting progressively worse; so much so that his mother decides to get a job--in a factory, I believe--leaving Luke alone in the house. One day Luke notices that one of the neighbor's has his lights on when no one is supposed to be home. Then he sees a face; could Luke have found another hidden child? Could this child be his friend? Only if Luke dares to disobey his parents and go outside. Is there life outside the attic?

My thoughts: I remember discovering this series a few years after I first started blogging. It was LOVE. I remember that it was winter. While I had the first two or three checked out at the same time, I finished them all in one day and a snowstorm kept me from getting the rest of the series right when I wanted them, no, NEEDED them. Long story short, CHECK OUT ALL THE TITLES AT ONCE. That's my advice to you. I found the series to be fast-paced, compelling, thoughtful. I really loved Luke and his new friend, Jen. show less

Words cannot describe my love for the Shadow Children, or Margaret Peterson Haddix, but I'll do my best. These books are some of my favorites, I've read them so many times! They make me laugh, cry, and question the world around me. The first book, Among the Hidden, or as I like to think of it, Luke's Story, is quite the lonesome tale. When he meets Jen, everything seems to look up for him. I could hardly bear it when she died.
One of my definite favorites indeed.