Carly+W.

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Among The Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix  ﻿ Ever feel like you're confined in your own house? Everyone's nice and all but that doesn't change anything. You'll never be like your family members, never be able to live your life without fear of being discovered. Margaret Haddix's //Among The Hidden// captivated me, transforming the world around me to the future where there's population police and rations of food. In this science-fiction book, I guess I liked Haddix's style of writing. I think it flowed together nicely, the wording was decent. Each page was better than the last, which was more exciting than my normal choices of girly, high-class teen dramas. It was something I wouldn't have normally picked up, or read. The choice of when to say what was perfectly planned. The way Haddix wrote the book was serious but caring in a way where it didn't flip-flop back and forth, which was great. There wasn't anything I disliked about the book. She evoked emotions well, but not so much as to discourage me from reading further. If anything, it encouraged me. The characters weren't really described physically. Their habits and the way they act was described just enough so that you would have your own idea of them. First off, there's Luke, the main character. Luke's a shadow child, or a third child (there's a law that you can't have more than two children). He has two brothers, Matthew and Mark. They're older than Luke, although it doesn't mention how old. There's also Luke's mom and dad who are just referred to as Mom and Dad. During the middle and end, there are really only two more characters that Luke interacts with; Jen and Jen's dad. Luke has a fearful and compassionate personality. He cares for other's feelings and would rather try to make someone feel better rather than gently telling the hard truth. Luke may seem tentative but has bursts of courage after carefully thinking about what he's going to do. Matthew and Mark don't really play important roles except for being their mother's two legal children. Luke's mother is very sweet and warm from his descriptions, she's very comforting. Luke's dad is harsh, he does seem like he cares, but like most men he doesn't come off that way. Luke's dad doesn't play much of a role either. Jen is another shadow child that Luke meets during the middle portion of the book. She's very outgoing and loud. Jen wants to be heard and be treated just like anyone else. Jen's dad is a government worker who only works for the government so that then he can sabotage them whenever he gets the chance. //Among The Hidden// takes place in the future. It never mentions when, but it does say that a great famine all around the world and that there were alot of droughts. I'd estimate it was around 2030 or above, considering in one of the history books Jen gives Luke, it says poor parts of the world were starving. Luke's world is very much alike to the world we know now, except for a few ecnomical and governmental things. Those few things being; there's no junk food (it was outlawed), the government totally scares everyone because they have so much power, there's population police (to enforce that there are only two or less children per husband and wife), there are some different laws, and we don't have as many rights. The government thinks that there isn't enough food, even though there would be if they just listened to new ideas. I guess Luke's world/our supposed (I use supposed very loosely) future is like a utopia. The plot of the story is fairly simple, not that complicated really. Luke lives on a farm with his Mom, Dad, and his two older brothers, Matthew and Mark. Luke loves the woods, but to his dismay, construction workers are tearing down most of the woods outside his farmhouse. Luke may no-longer be outside or in a room without the shades pulled over the windows, because he's a third child. And, like I said, families may only have two children. If there are any more than two children and the population police find out, Luke will be killed immediately. So Luke is mostly confined to his attic room and staircase. He's sad. He'll never be like his older brothers that get to go outside, or go to school and have friends. His mother cares about him and he doesn't let her know how he feels. After a while, the construction workers are gone and there are huge mansions in place of the woods. Barons with families move in and soon after, Luke discovers how he can at least look outside. He finds a vent in his attic bedroom to look out to the outside. He watches the people leave and come home and gives everyone a nickname. Just as the story seems to be getting dull, Luke sees a face in the window of one of the houses after he was sure all of the people left. After a few days, Luke decides to lay it all on the line, he's sure the face he saw was another third child, so while his family is away, he runs to the house and goes through the back screen door. There, he finds Jen.

In Conclusion, I believe this book is very worth your time to read. Hey, even read the whole series while you're at it, I know I'm definitely going to check it out. This book is a great attention holder, you won't want to put it down. But if you do put it down, it won't be long until you pick it back up again.

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