Middler Books and More

This blog contains Bruce DuBoff's book reviews, info on other media, and related topics. It is a collaboration between the librarian and both the students of Pennsauken Intermediate School and Phifer Middle School in Pennsauken, NJ, and the general middler book reading community. The books featured here are appropriate for grades 5-8, though not all books reviewed here are appropriate for all of those ages.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

The Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix (4 out of 4 stars)--
If you are a science fiction or conspiracy theory fan, I have a great series for you! It's long enough to be engaging for quite a while, but it never gets stale or boring. Starting with the book Among the Hidden and continuing through several titles beginning with "Among the . . ." Margaret Peterson Haddix has created a believable, plausible, but terrifying vision of the world and its social problems.

In the future world portrayed in this well-crafted, suspenseful series, Luke Garner is an illegal child. Due to overpopulation and food shortages, no family may have more than two children. But Luke is a third child, and if he is discovered, the Population Police will eliminate him. There are others like Luke, and throughout the series, he meets and works with them to try to change the law, and sometimes merely to survive in a world in which omnipresent spies are paid to turn him in and have him terminated.

I am a big sci-fi fan, and I haven't read material this good since M. T. Anderson's Feed. I am on the edge of my seat every time I read one of these books, and the last one, Among the Free, was just released, so the series is now complete. If you like sci-fi, read this series.

Titles in the series:
Among the Imposters
Among the Betrayed
Among the Hidden
Among the Barons
Among the Brave
Among the Enemy
Among the Free

1 Comments:

Blogger MLS said...

Thanks Bruce! I now have a new SCIFi series to look for. How does ti compare to the Replica Series?
Marilyn

1:35 PM  

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