Among the Hidden: Shadow Children, Book 1

I like to write reviews with more detail to help those like myself who have young readers who read above reading level and may or may not be ready for various books. My 1st grader heard about this series through a friend with older siblings. He checked it out from the school library and was SO excited to start reading it when he got home. I was cautious given the synopsis on the back cover along with info that people have said here, so I read it first to make sure. WARNING: SPOILERS Overall, it was a great book that would be appropriate for 10ish up, depending on maturity level. My 7 year old has always done well with distinguishing fact vs. fantasy so I was OK with him reading most of it. However, there was one part I was not comfortable with at all. Jen, the 13 year old "hidden" girl that Luke (the main character) meets, is killed. And not just in passing, but in quite a bit of detail. Luke asks Jen's father what happened and he replies, "They shot her. They shot all of them. All forty kids at the rally, gunned down right in front of the president's house. The blood flowed into his rosebushes. But they had the sidewalks scrubbed before the tourists came, so nobody would know." Maybe some 7 year olds would be OK with reading that, but that's not an image I wanted in my son's head at this age. We compromised that he was able to read the book until he got to that chapter and then he needed to stop. I then read that chapter to him and omitted the majority of the above paragraph. The rest of the story is fine enough if you child is OK with the overall premise. They talk about the possibility of dying at this rally (but not how), and Jen's dad mentions a little later, "They [the government] probably would have shot a thousand. Or fifteen thousand. They don't care." But that one paragraph with the graphic detail that really made me pause.

PARENTS BEWARE - I am heart broken and have serious questions as to why this book was chosen for 6th graders in our school to read for class and how the traumatizing and seriously disturbing the tone of the whole book is, and how on earth this is beneficial to the kids. Especially with the state of the world right now and when you have a child, for instance, who has a very deep thought process and imagination as well and is very aware of the bigger picture. As a grown adult, almost 50, it rocked me to my core, because I see the similarities of our own government and those around the world implementing these ideas, and programming the masses for this sort of totalitarian world. As well as China's practices of this very subject. I was absolutely horrified when Jen, the 13 year old "hidden" girl that Luke meets, is killed. And not just in passing, but in gruesome detail. Luke asks Jen's father what happened to her because she and all the other "hidden children" went to the President's house to have a rally and ask for their freedom to live as all the other children do. He replies, "They shot her. They shot all of them. All forty kids at the rally, gunned down right in front of the president's house. The blood flowed into his rosebushes. But they had the sidewalks scrubbed before the tourists came, so nobody would know." Jen's father is also one of the government officials, a population control officer, who participated in KILLING the kids! That is NOT an image I wanted in my son's or any kids' head at this age. I want to get the image out of my OWN head and wished I never would have read this book. With all the school shootings and government over reach this is just too much. They also condemn pregnant woman, referring to them as the enemy and that they are worse than criminals. They talk about abortion with the population control and genetic engineering for the rich barons who want to have specific kids. They go over the whole government controlling everything, the food, animals, crops, no pets allowed, etc. and basically if you don't obey the government, you'll be killed - no matter your age. It's the most horrible, dark, traumatizing book I have ever read.