Among the Hidden
Margaret Haddix

Annotation:

Luke does not exist. There is no record of his birth and there will be no record of his death. He has only seen four people before…ever and those people are the people he lives with. He lives in fear that his existence will be realized. Luke is a shadow child. In the society where he lives each family is only allowed to have two children. Luke is his family’s third child. Up until now he has never left his family’s property and because of a new housing development he is no longer allowed outside or near any windows. His existence is shallow. Will his life ever consist of more than this hiding and fear? Or will he simply pass through life with no record of his existence anywhere? And what would happen if he broke the rules?

Story Line

Among the Hidden

• Luke has to start staying away from all the windows and he can no longer go outside because of the housing developments going up in the area.
• Luke exists in his small world but wishes his life could consist of more. He starts watching out of the attic vent at all the commotion around him.
• Luke sees a person in a window at one of the Baron’s houses and he is curious. Could it be another third child?
• Luke sneaks to the neighbor’s house and meets Jen, another third child who is a radical about getting freedom.
• Luke starts visiting Jen as frequently as he can. Jen is planning a rally to alert the government that the third children want to be recognized and protected.
• Luke decides not to attend the rally; Jen attends the rally where the government kills all those in attendance.
• Jen’s father gets a fake id for Luke and he becomes Lee Grant and goes to a boarding school.

Among the Imposters

• Luke (Lee) arrives at the school in a very harsh environment and is left there by Mr. Talbot.
• Luke does not understand anything about how the school works and is humiliated by some of the other students daily.
• Luke discovers a way outside and begins escaping often to the woods to be alone.
• Luke discovers that some of the other students also escape to the woods and that these students are also hidden shadow children.
• One of the students is working for the population police and plans to betray the shadow children. Luke stops the betrayal and helps save the children.

I absolutely loved these books and I am going to have to get a hold of the next book in the series soon. Normally, I do not enjoy fantasy but these books made this fantastical society come alive to me and I could feel the emotions going through these characters. I would definitely read these books to my students or recommend them to them. - JK