Dear Readers,

 

Recently I read and finished the book Among The Imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It was published May 1 of 2001. Among the imposters is the second book to the series of Shadow Children. It’s a dystopian novel about a young boy Luke living in a world of Iilegal third children and he’s one of them. I started out reading this book not knowing about the first one or the one after this. I had no clue it was a series but it was easy to catch up. Margret Peterson Haddix was born and raised in a farming town in Washington Court House Ohio and graduated from Miami University (of Ohio) with many degrees such as English/journalism, English/creative writing, and history. Before she got to who Margaret was today and before her first ever book was published Haddix worked in a newspaper copy editor in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a newspaper reporter in Indianapolis, and a community College instructor, and a freelance writer ( it’s just a writer who works on a self-employed basis. They can work for one or more newspaper or magazine) in Danville, Illinois. The first book Margaret wrote was Running out of time published in 1995 and on top of that Margret has written over 30 books! Her latest book came out in the fall of 2015 called Redeemed which is now her 36th book. Haddix usually has one or two books put into various state of completion or revision/readiness before their published. She has two children and a husband who is very supportive of her writing. Her children are in collage but she still writes today on her own. She’s always been a strong writer and reader since she was a child there’s a picture of her online getting tons of classic books for her birthday. I’ve only read one of Margrets books but they all sound like good ones to me. Among the hidden has 172 pages including a sneak peak of the second book of the series of the Shadow Children. Among the imposters has a ⅘ good reading from GoodReads and is recommended for ages 8-14.

 

In a dystopian world were third children are iligeal Luke is on his own hiding in his attic his whole life. Until he met Jen who turned out to be an illegal third child as well. The two began to bond until Jen sadly died during a rally. Now Luke is all alone again. Mr.Tablot, Jens father works for the population police but promises to keep him safe like he tried to do for Jen. Mr. Tablot dropped off Luke at an all boys school so he can hide and blend in and snuck in a note into Luke’s hand for him to read. These other kids are rich and only have one other sibling unlike Luke who had two. Making new friends was hard for Luke he stayed hidden and quiet among the hallways and his classes. But gets tormented by one of his bunk mates especially one boy he calls Jackle boy They all laugh at Luke and call him names like esmay. But only if he can find out what their names where. Even harder Luke can’t ever read the note that Mr.Tablot gave him. But when he does. It’s not the information that he needs to know it doesn’t show him how to survive the school for boys. It’s even harder for him to be tortured every day from Jackle boy and get termits ( warnings)  from his teachers. The only things he can be happy about here is the memory’s of him and Jen. But life at Hendricks got better from one day he noticed something about the school there no windows at all in the school and there’s a door but where does it lead. He he notices that students have been waking up late to go outside he realizes something he’s not the only third child. And one of them is Jackle boy but his real name is Jason. But can he really trust him can he really trust anyone anymore?

 

Among the imposters was a great book. Even though when I first picked it up and got the book from Mr.Jockers I was a little disappointed. The book only has 175 pages including a summery, and a sneak peak of the third book of the Shadow children series. I thought it would be a short read that would take me a few days to finish. Even when I first started reading it I noticed that there were some characters that were in the first book and it was hard to catch on. Then I realized I chose to write down a book that I didn’t read the first one. But after ten pages in everything started to clear up and I got what they were talking about and why Luke was where he was. I thought the whole book was well detailed, suspenseful, and leaves you off wondering what the second book would be about. I’m really happy I chose Among The Imposters as my second dystopian novel and I’m looking forward to read the rest. I’m very impressed how well Margreat Peterson Haddix wrote the book and that this book is one of the many 36 books she has written. I am now a fan of her writing and I hope I get to read more of her books soon. Among The Shadow children in my option gets 4-5 stars. Even though I enjoyed the book some chapters to me where hard to understand and I had to re-read them. But other than that it was a very well written book.
-Abby Straughn