The Shadow Children Series, by Margaret Peterson Haddix

The Shadow Children Series:

Amoung the Hidden
Amoung the Impostors
Amoung the Betrayed
Amoung the Barons
Amoung the Brave
Amoung the Enemy
Amoung the Free

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Okay, this is another series, and again, if you were to look at the suggested age group it would be below the young adult ages. But, as in Have Space Suit, Will Travel, this is a good story and the series is worth a read.

In Amoung the Hidden, we meet Luke, a "third child". He is the third son of a family in a nation in which parents are legally limited to have only two children. Any third's can be immediately be put to death. Luke has been in hiding his entire life, but it hasn't been too cumbersome until now because in living on a farm with no other homes near, there has been no danger of him being seen. Now new houses for "Barons", people who are, in Luke's eyes, rich, have been erected near by and people have moved into those houses. Luke can no longer leave the house for hear of being seen, but worse, he must stay hidden even within his home. He can't eat with his family, for fear someone will see him through the window. During the day when no one but Luke is home, he must stay in the attic so that window shades need not be drawn and raise suspicion.

However, one day Luke spies someone in a Baron's house that he can see from his attic window. The house was supposed to be empty. Eventually, Luke decides there is a third child living in the house, and he sneaks over to meet the child. This third child turns out to be Jen, who is approximately Luke's age. However, Jen has things Luke has never seen, thanks to being the child of a Baron. One of those things is a computer which is hooked to a network, and with which Jen talks to other third children.

Jen is determined to achieve freedom for all third children, and works on a plan to do just that during some of the times that Luke visits her.

Amoung the Hidden is the only book in the entire series that can be read as a stand alone book. All the others in the series are based upon the preceding books in one way or another.

This is an amazing little book. We feel Luke's frustration and loneliness as his parent's push him further into the shadows trying to keep him safe, yet at the same time distancing themselves both emotionally and physically from him. It's his desperateness that forces him to Jen's doorstep, but it's Jen's companionship that keeps him there. The plight of Luke -- much worse off in so many ways than Jen -- seems hopeless. We see no way for him to ever escape the prison sentence he has been given as a third child, and, in the end, even Jen fails him in that regard.

I haven't yet found a book I disliked by this author, and I doubt this book would disappoint anyone who enjoys the alternate future/science fiction genre.

The entire series of books takes place over a very short period of time -- at most perhaps two years. Each of the following books is a single chapter in the struggle to free the third children and to bring a new and less restrictive government to the land. Each book is short, and each succeeding book builds upon the previous books in the series. In general, I felt that it turned out to be too easy to accomplish the changes the people wanted, but unlike in some stories, we do see people important to us die, and we see people important to us go through extreme hardships, and those make it a little easier to believe that the rest of the people in the country have chosen to rebel as well.

I didn't like any of the following books as well as I liked the first book, but that isn't a strike against the other books, it's more a point for the first.

Amoung the Hidden, Rating: 9.5/10

Entire Series, Rating: 8.7/10