Among the hiddenby Margaret Peterson Haddix

Among the Hidden is a thought-provoking story set in of the not too distant future that explores the choices and challenges faced by an early adolescent boy as he struggles to find his place in a world in which his existence is illegal. Luke, a third child, lives in a future where each family is allowed to have only two children. Because his parents broke the population laws when they let him live, Luke must stay hidden in his house, has never been to school, must eat in the attic stairwell to avoid being seen, and must spend his days with nothing to do except re-read a few old books and observe his neighborhood through the attic air vents.

When he discovers another third child, Jennifer Rose Talbot, also hiding in his neighborhood, he dares to venture outside his attic-hiding place and thus discovers a network of hidden€¦
Chapters 1 €“ 5 Summary

Chapter 1: Luke Garner’s mother calls him into the house. For the first time in his life, he does not obey right away. Luke stands for another moment in the woods, listening to the sound of falling trees in the distance. He breathes in the fresh air, enjoying his last moments of freedom. Luke is afraid he may never be allowed outside again.

That night at dinner, Luke asks his parents why they had to sell the woods next to their house. His parents explain and not for the first time, that the Government has forced them to sell. Twelve-year-old Luke thinks bitterly of all the other orders the Government has given his family, like where to plant their corn and how much to charge for their crops. Mother explains that the woods are being torn down to put in houses for Government workers and other city folk. Luke wishes€¦
Chapters 6 €“ 10 Summary

Chapter 6: Two weeks later, the tax bill arrives on the same day Dad, Matthew and Mark load up the hogs for slaughter. When Dad hands Mother the tax bill, she is so startled she drops it. The bill is three times the usual amount. Dad explains that the taxes have gone up because the new houses next door have raised the property value of the Garners’ home. Luke interjects that this sounds like a good thing. Secretly, from his vantage point at the attic vents, Luke has grown to love the new houses. Watching their construction has become his main form of entertainment. But Dad shakes his head and explains that the rise in property value is good only if a homeowner is planning to sell his or her house, which the Garners are not. All it means for us is that the Government thinks they can get more€¦
Chapters 11 €“ 15 Summary

Chapter 11: Luke watches the Sports Family house constantly now. On the fourth day of his vigil, he sees the blinds flip up and down quickly in an upstairs window at 11 a.m. after the family has left home for the day. On the seventh day, someone leaves the blinds up in a downstairs window when the family leaves the house and Luke is able to see a light flip on and off inside the house 2 hours later. A half-hour after he sees the light, the Sports Family mom drives up in her red car. She enters the house for 2 minutes, only long enough to close the blind in the downstairs window before leaving again. On the thirteenth day, a very hot day, the blinds are down, but the Sports Family leaves their windows . The breeze blows the blinds back a few times and Luke is able€¦
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Chapters 16 €“ 20 Summary

Chapter 16: That night at supper, Luke tunes out his family’s conversation. He is amazed at his own daring and in awe of everything he’s seen at Jen’s house. He has to struggle to avoid talking about his new friend to his family. He and Jen have arranged a signal so that Luke can come back to visit again. Jen showed him her mirrors placed by each of the doors and windows of her home. By tilting the mirrors, Jen is able to get a panoramic view of the entire neighborhood, including Luke’s house. Luke considers asking his parents for mirrors, but they look expensive and anyway, he would have to explain how he came up with the idea. He and Jen have arranged for her to look outside using her mirrors every morning at 9. If Luke can come over that day, he will turn on his back porch€¦
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Chapters 21 €“ 25 Summary

Chapter 21: The next month, Dad gets a letter from the Government forbidding him from growing anything indoors hydroponically. The Government letter uses a lot of big words and the Garners have trouble understanding it. Luke is the only one who can decipher its meaning, having practiced by reading the thick Government books Jen loaned him. Apparently, the Government has discovered that Dad has been buying plastic tubing and other items needed for hydroponics. They order him to hand over all the supplies he has bought because the Government has outlawed hydroponics because this method has been used to grow illegal drugs in the past. Dad is upset. He had hoped to supplement the farm income with the hydroponic vegetables.

Luke again feels guilty and wonders whether his family wouldn’t have more money if they didn’t have to feed a third child. Even more upsetting to Luke is the fact€¦
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Chapters 26 €“ 30 Summary

Chapter 26: A few days later, the weather finally provides Luke with a clear, dry day. Luke knows his dad will spend the whole day in the fields, leaving him free to carry out his plan. Luke slips out the back door and dashes toward Jen’s house. To get inside, Luke has to not only rip the screen, but also break a pane in one of the windows. Once inside, Luke heads for the alarm panel and nervously punches in the code Jen has taught him to disable the alarm. He calls loudly for Jen as he searches the bedrooms. He gets no response and hurries to the computer room, where he logs on with the password, free. He is so jumpy he mistypes it twice, as fere’ and feer’ before getting it right. Once in the chat room, he is surprised to see no one chatting. Desperately, he types,€¦
Among the Hidden Characters

Luke Garner

Luke Garner is obedient to a fault. The first thing the reader learns about 12-year-old Luke is that he has never disobeyed his mother’s order to hide. Luke is a highly sensitive child who has taken on adult responsibilities at a young age although he does not actually realize how maturely he has behaved. All his life, Luke has sensed the importance of his parents’ need to hide him and he also senses that disobeying his parents’ orders will cause them hardship and emotional pain. For the sake of his family’s well-being, Luke denies his own needs for fresh air, sunshine and human companionship. This type of sacrifice is usually made by adults; the willingness to set aside one’s personal needs for the greater good is a sign of maturity, a maturity that Luke has instinctively displayed all his life.

Still, part of coming of age and maturing is breaking€¦
Among the Hidden Objects/Places

Population Law 3903

The law enacted some 13 years before the start of the book that limits the number of children a woman may bear to two. Women are surgically altered to prevent further pregnancies after their second child and any third children who do come to term are automatically condemned to death under the law without a hearing or a trial. Among Government officials, however, it becomes a secret status symbol to have a third child in violation of the law. The Population Law is a condemnation of Luke’s human rights; it negates his very existence and denies him a place in society. Human rights are not considered inalienable under the totalitarian Government regime that controls the nation in which Luke lives. Even the rich Barons find themselves unable to flout the Population Law when their children begin to come of age. As this first generation of third children begins to grow€¦
mong the Hidden Themes and Characters

In Among the Hidden, Haddix uses the development of Luke Garner from a frightened and powerless child into a self-aware, confident young adult to explore several important themes. Unlike