Haddix, Margaret Peterson. (2000). Among the Hidden. New York: Simon and Schuster. 160 pp.

Grade Range: 6-12

Genre: fantasy, science fiction, supernatural

Critique and Summary:

Haddix's Among the Hidden, is the first book in the Shadow Children series. Luke is a twelve-year-old boy whose very existence is forbidden because he is a third child, and government regulations only allow two children per family. When the government replaces the woods behind Luke's family's home with an expensive housing development, Luke is forced inside to his windowless attic bedroom. One day, while spying on a neighbor's house, Luke believes he sees a shadow child in a neighboring home. He bravely breaks escapes his own home and breaks into the neighboring home, where he meets Jen, a shadow child with connections to other shadow children via the Internet. After Jen and a group of shadow children are brutally murdered when attempting to confront the President, Jen's father discovers Luke and helps him escape to a new life.

Haddix has created a futuristic world where personal rights and freedoms are very limited. Among the Hidden is a great vehicle to help teach young adults about the Bill of Rights and governmental control. This is an excellent and appropriate book to teach in this day and age, because not only does it encourage children to think about the purposes and logic behind various laws, it also is a good lesson about whether people should believe everything they are told. The novel also addresses the question of whether people should allow the government to make decisions without the consent of the people.

Awards

American Library Association's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adult Honors

International Reading Association Children's Book Award

American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults

American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Reader's

Junior Library Guild Selection

American Bookseller"Pick of the List" Notation

State Reader's Choice awards in Arizona, Oklahoma and Maryland

Broad Themes

Families

Friends and Enemies

Challenges and Triumphs

The Individual vs. Society

Adventure

Author/Illustrator Information

Margaret Peterson Haddix grew up on a farm in Courthouse, Ohio. She earned a degree from Miami University in Ohio. In addition to writing novels, Haddix has worked as a newspaper reporter, a community college instructor, and a freelance writer. Currently, Haddix, her husband, and their two children reside in Columbus, Ohio.

For more information about Margaret Peterson Haddix:

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110073/Author.html?tqskip1=1. Biographical information.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Margaret_Peterson_Haddix.htm Bibliography of Haddix's works.

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/haddix.htm Teacher resources for Haddix's works.

Media Connections

Movies

In the Time of Butterflies (2001). In 1960, two sisters attempted to bring down the Dominican Republic government and were murdered as a result.

Closet Land. (1991). This unique film stars only two characters. A police officer interrogates a writer because the authorities believe that she has included subliminal political messages in the children's stories she writes.

Holes (2003). The story of a boy falsely accused of stealing who gets sent to a juvenile camp where he has to dig holes and try to survive the crooked warden and her entourage.

Farewell to Manzanar (1976) Depicts life in a Japanese internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) The diary of a teenage Jewish girl, who hid from the Nazis during the occupation of Holland. This version goes beyond what Anne wrote – it follows her into Auschwitz and Birkenau. ***Concentration camp scenes are extremely intense.

Music

"Blue on Black." Lyrics by Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, from Trouble Is. Warner Brothers, 1997. Song of alienation.

"Blowin'in the Wind." Lyrics by Bob Dylan, from The Freewhelin'Bob Dylan. Sony, 1963. Social Protest Song.

"Blind Willie McTell." Lyrics by Bob Dylan, from The Bootleg Series, Volumes 1-3. Sony. 1991. Social Protest Song.

"Beautiful." Performed by Christina Aguilera, from Stripped. RCA, 2002. Song about self-worth and positive self-identity.

Online Resources

http://books.grlap.com/child.htm List books of all kinds for all ages (child, young adult, teen).

http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/middlegradea.htm Cynthia Leitich Smith's Children's Literature Resources has lists of YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels as well as Stories Behind Stories, Quotes, Authors/Illustrators, Awards, Multicultural, Ethno-Categories, Teaching and Reading Guides, etc. Has interviews with authors – lists Texas authors. Great for finding those Texas authors you would like to invite to speak to your class. Also included are multiple intelligence projects.

http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/newsletters/description.htm Several excellent historical narratives used in lesson plans on the Bill of Rights.

Related Texts

Jiang, Ji-Li. (1997). Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution. New York: Harper Collins. 285 pp. An autobiographical account of a teenage girl growing up in the violent times of China's Cultural Revolution.

Clements, Andrew. (2002). Things Not Seen. Philomel Books. 176 pp. Fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up one morning invisible. He informs his parents who instruct him to keep his invisibility secret. However, unexpected events occur and not only does Bobby deal with self-identity, but his special ability proves to be very useful.

Napoli, Donna Jo. (1996). Zel. New York: Dutton Children's Books. 227 pp. Retelling of Rapunzel with a twist. A mother loves her daughter so much that she imprisons her in tower to prevent her from growing up, falling in love, and leaving home. *Sexual situations

Avi. (2002). Crispin: The Cross of Lead. New York: Hyperion Press, 262 pp. Thirteen-year-old peasant boy wrongfully accused of a crime flees, but before he does, he tells of life on the manor (feudal injustices). This coincides with the English Peasant's Revolt of 1381. Great historical fiction literature.

Farmer, Nancy. (2002). The House of the Scorpion. New York: Antheneum. 380 pp. An extremely wealthy drug lord has lived to be 140-years-old by harvesting organs of clones. Eventually the clones outlive their usefulness and are destroyed. But Matt, a clone, comes to understand who he is and what he is and what he must do in order to survive.

Yolen, Jane. (1988). The Devil's Arithmetic. New York: Viking Kestrel. 170 pp. Twelve-year old Hannah was tired of hearing her grandfather's stories of the Holocaust. However, when she is suddenly transported back in time to 1940's Poland, she learns first-hand the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Teaching Ideas

(1) "Media-Study: Non-Transparent Constructions" The principle of non-transparency insists that the media are rather more than simple"windows on the world" or "mirrors" which reflect external reality in a way that needs no further explanation. It insists that TV, newspapers, films, radio, and advertisements are actively produced. They are involved in a process of constructing or representing reality rather than simply transmitting or reflecting it. So these windows limit our vision; they have a frame and a position on one side of the building only.

Students can be engaged in considering the implications of this principle by imagining that they are yearbook photographers and can only take one photograph of their class in action. What would that one picture be? No matter what shot the photographer chooses, the others will be omitted. The photo will only be one still photo and all the movement, sounds and smells that are part of life will be excluded. The class will not be represented by someone's choice of how to construct a version of its reality, yet this is what happens when a news event is represented by one photograph, or a half-column of print, or a sixty-second TV news item.

The next step is to apply this concept to various media. Look at a situation comedy, a TV drama, a painting, a textbook, a novel – what built-in filters does each medium bring to its subject? When we look at institutions we see that mass media is an industry, subject to large movements of capital, market pressures, and government regulation. The media student, ideally, is aware of social and economic factors that impinge on the kinds of representations available.

To refine the rest of the lesson to relate it to Among the Hidden, ask the students how a government could get so much control over the population. Since media plays such an important factor in influencing the majority of the population, students should bring in any examples of media hype that they observed. The second stage of the lesson would involve groups of students setting up their own examples of media hype using advertising, persuasive articles, and propaganda in the news to demonstrate how media is indeed something to be questioned.

[Summarized/adapted from "Reshaping High School English" by Bruce Pirie in Classroom Notes Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. August 1998. p. 11.]

(2)"A History-Based Research Project" Have the students write creatively about historical events with which they have become familiar through fiction or other reading. Assign a work of fiction such as Among the Hidden. Along with this reading, have the class research an event in American history which parallels events in the novel. Some events that invite comparison are:

*the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II

*the forced march of the Cherokee Nation in the Trail of Tears

*the intolerance of the public towards AIDS victims (Ryan White)

*Sen. Joseph McCarthy's blacklists

Working in groups or individually, students can compile their research. This would take the form of an essay or a research paper, perhaps including various options of a multigenre nature. The main focus would be a comparison/contrast between the novel and the historical event.

[Summarized/adapted from "A History-Based Research Project" by Bonnie Albertson in Classroom Notes Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. January 1997. p. 4.]

(3)"I Declare My Independence" Have older students read Jefferson's"Declaration of Independence," Paine's"Common Sense," and Henry's"Speech at the Virginia Convention," and spend time noting and discussing the style of language and rhetorical devices. Then ask students to write speeches in which they declare their independence"from harsh authority," using the oratorical techniques of Patrick Henry:

Rhetorical questions Emotional Appeals

Restatement Charged Words

Repetition Gestures

Logical Arguments Speech Inflection

Parallelism

To prepare find and review these devices in the documents listed above. The goal is for students to gain an understanding of how these techniques are employed and how they are effective in persuading listeners.

Speeches need not be extensive; three to five minutes is the target length. Judge students on preparation, presentation, originality, and use of the techniques listed. The range of speeches presented include both humorous and the truly impassioned. Natural connections can be drawn between students'speeches to the class and the speeches of modern-day political candidates and activists, as well as televised state of the union addresses. An effective corollary to this assignment is to ask students to find and compare examples of similar oratorical techniques in speeches and addresses from both national and local sources.

[Summarized/adapted from "My Declaration of Independence" by Gary Meyerhoff in Classroom Notes Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. January 1998. pp. 2-3.]

(Review written by Diane Griffin and Jennifer E. Moore and edited by Jennifer E. Moore)