Among the Hidden

By: Margaret Peterson Haddix

Science Fiction

(Chapter Book)

Luke Garner is living in a time of famine.  Because of the shortage of food people are only allowed to have two children.  Luke is a third child so he must stay hidden from public view.  The government starts building houses in the woods behind the Garner's and Luke is forced to total isolation from the outside world.  From his attic Luke sees the face of a girl in a house that already has two children.  Luke runs to the house to meet this other third child named Jen Talbot.  Jen organizes a rally to support third children, but Luke refuses to go with her.  Luke doesn't hear from Jen for a week and finds out from Jen's father that she along with everyone else at the rally were killed.  Jen's father provides Luke with a "new" I.D. of a boy who was killed the day before.  Luke accepts it, but has to leave his family forever.

I would read this book aloud to my students, a chapter or two at the end of the day.  With reading this book aloud I would have my students interact with the text before, during, and after listening to each chapter that we read.  This would give the students a chance to talk about the characters, setting, plot, making inferences between each chapter and so much more.