The Shadow Children

Title: Among the Hidden
Series: The Shadow Children
Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Age: 9-12

Summary: Luke is a Shadow Child, an illegal third child. If he were ever discovered his family could be tortured and killed. But Luke has been lucky, his family's farm borders a forest where he can roam with little concern about being seen. Until the government bulldozes the woods and begins to build rows upon rows of houses there. Will he ever be allowed outside again? Luke begins to despair until one day he spies a shadow of a face in a window next door.



Thoughts: These were pretty quick reads for me. There's a lot happening in each book. The plot seems to stall mid-way through the series, but Haddix makes up for it by telling the story from other characters' points of view (a nice change from Luke's perspective).

The reading level is about for grade 4 but the series would appeal to readers of older grades too. There's a lot of neat ideas presented -and there's always a feeling of suspense and danger for the characters.

This series is a good introduction to Dystopic literature for tweens, and one to keep in mind for reluctant readers (Boys and Girls).