Shadow Children Series Review
I personally don’t like reading. But when one of my friends suggested reading Among the Hidden I got drawn to the whole series. And I recommend this series to you.
Shadow children are a series of 7 books by Margaret Peterson Haddix. They start from Among the Hidden all the way to Among the Free. The main character Luke Garner is a third child. In this time period government regulations only allow two children per family which meant third children were forbidden to exist and if found they would be shot, that’s what the population police is for. And if someone found a third child then they would be rewarded with money so you can imagine people will go crazy and not help any third children in need of a place to hide and of a fake ID. In the first book Among the Hidden main character, Luke Garner at the time 12 got tired of living in the attic of his house. This was caused by the government taking over his backyard and making new houses for barons. One day in his lonely dark attic he peeked outside his window and he saw the shadow of what he soon learned to also be a third child in his neighboring house. He risked his life to find out for sure that he wasn’t the only third child in the world. He soon met Jen Talbot. They became best friends.
In among the hidden he was a sacred little boy capable of doing nothing to risk his life. In Among the Imposters Luke took a gigantic step out of his comfort zone and for the first time he is living among others. He has taken the identity of a deceased boy; Lee Grant. He is now attending the Hendricks School for Boys. The third book Among the Betrayed is not told in the point of view of Luke Garner but by Nina Idi. Luke is doing socially well in the school for boys and even made friends. He attempted to help Nina Idi with her problems of being betrayed by the one she loved. In the fourth book Among the Barons Luke garner takes an even bigger step. He moves in with his “parents.” He realizes that he can’t trust them because they took him to a small room and said that they were going to kill him. They wanted to have a proper burial for their son, Lee Grant. Lee Grant (Luke Garner) escapes safe and sound even after his “parents” were killed.
In the book Among the Brave Luke gets into some trouble with the population police. His real brothers team up with his friends and they try to rescue him. By now Luke is completely out of his comfort zone. He has decided to work from the inside. Work for the enemy. Work for the population police. Luke grows so much more throughout these books. In Among the Free Luke takes a brave stand of himself. He learns that in order to be free he needs to face his fears and learn to not run away from them. Luke Garner has truly grown. He went from a scared little boy afraid to get out of his house to a boy who worked with his enemies.
My favorite book out of all seven is Among the Free. I liked this book the most because it is very exciting and has a lot of thrills. You never know what might happen because something always has to get twisted or go wrong along the way. I recommend this series to you if you are not a big reader. This series would draw you in. It will catch you attention and it will actually make you feel like you were part of their whole experience.