Luke is a 12-year-old boy who lives secretly in the attic of his family's farm, as he is an illegal third child in a world where the Population Police enforce a two-child policy. He discovers that another third child, Jen, lives nearby and they meet in secret. Jen hatches a plan for third children to rally at the White House to protest the population law. However, the rally is a trap set by the Population Police and all the children, including Jen, are killed. Luke is then forced to leave his family behind and assume a new identity to avoid being caught himself.

1. Among the Hidden
CWID-101-063W

2. Luke
 12 years old
 Has 2 older brothers, Mark &
Mathew
 Lives on a farm, where his dad
raised pigs
 He lives in the attic, has never
gone to school or had friends
 Considered “Shadow” child

3. Population Police
They made a law that families were only
allowed to have two children. If you had
more, not only did the child pay the
consequence but so did the family. Luke’s
parents ended up with him being the third
child. His mom avoided going to town her
whole pregnancy and had him at home.
They made a room for him in the attic. Since
they were surrounded by a forest, where
others couldn’t see, he was allowed to go
outside as long as he was careful. No one
knew of him, not even any extended family
or friends. He was considered a “shadow”
child.

4. They tore the forest down around Luke’s
home to add upper class homes. With the
new houses coming in, meant that Luke
was no longer allowed to go outside
anymore. He had to stay in the attic and
eat on the stairs to avoid being seen by
others. One day while in the attic he was
watching out the attic vent at the other
homes. When he got glimpse of someone
looking out their attic window. He knew it
wasn’t the family since every day he
counted and watched all the families leave
from every home. For a couple days he
keeps looking but never sees anyone
again. That’s when he decides that he is
going to break into the other house and
see who it is. He then finds out that
another third child lives there and her
name is Jen. They continue to meet at her
house every so often to not get caught.

5. Jen
 Twelve year old girl
 Also a third child or “Shadow” child
 Has 2 older brothers
 Comes from wealthy family
 Dad works at Population Police Headquarters
 Allowed to roam her house
 Eats junk food ex. Chips and soda
 Wants to end the Population law, so wants to
create rally
 Created online chatting site for all third
children

6. RallyJen wants all the third children in her chatroom
group to all come together and line up at the White
House to end the Population law. She wants all of
them to become “free” and live a normal life with
everyone. She goes to Luke’s house in the night and
tells him she is leaving to go to the rally. He hopes
to have heard something on the news the next
morning but there was never any mention of a rally.
He begins to wonder what happened to Jen. He gets
into Jen’s house and uses her computer to try to see
if the others knew where she was. Then Jen’s dad
comes into her room and finds him. Using her site
triggered the Population police that were
monitoring the site. They show up and her dad
hides him. He later finds out that Jen and all the
kids that went to the rally were killed. Due to him
using the computer, Jen’s dad tells him that he must
leave his family and be given a new identity. He
didn’t want his family to be harmed or punished for
finding out he was a third child.

7. Luke gets to tell his family goodbye before
Jen’s dad takes him to his new family with
his new identity. This was a great
dystopian/young adult book. It was
interesting to see how the Government
would try to control the population if there
was lack of food.