Have you ever wondered what family life might be like in the future? In the past few generations there has been a steady decline in the number of children people are having, but what if there was actually a law that said people could only have a certain amount of children? Well, in the book Among the Hidden by Margret Peterson Haddix there is such a law and a boy named Luke’s life is greatly affected by it.

Luke lives in a world where each family (house hold) is only allowed to have two children. Luke is one of the forbidden third children. He is forced to live his entire life indoors, never leaving his home. He never dares to leave the safety of his home because if anyone were to notify the government of his existence, the disobedience of this law is punishable with death for the third child. He cannot play outside, or have friends, or even go to school. He thinks that he is the only third child in the entire world and has spent all of his life thinking that he was all alone in this. That is, until one day after all of the moms and dads had left for work and their two children have caught the bus to school, he sees a flicker of movement in the house next door.

Could there be another third child? If this is true then that would mean Luke could finally have a friend and someone that understands what he is going through. But is going outside and sneaking over to the other house worth the risk of being seen?

Among the Hidden is an intriguing fantasy of what life could be like in the future. I loved this book because from the first chapter I was already interested in the story unlike some books where you have to wait a few chapters to really start to like the book. It draws readers in with strong emotions of love, friendship, courage, and most of all fear for the lives yourself and the people you care about most. There is also heavy suspense behind every chapter that keeps the pages turning.