Among The Hidden

Among The Hidden. by Margaret Peterson Haddix. (1998). 153p. New York: Simon and Schuster.  

Awards and Honors: Top 10--ALA Best Books for Young Adults, An ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Reader, YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, California Young Readers Medal

Review: 
A quick-paced and accessible dystopia for tween readers, Among the Hidden is the first book is Haddix's Shadow Children trilogy. Sometime in the not-too-distant future, a totalitarian government prohibits families from having more than two children. Luke is a third child- a "shadow child"- whose very existence is punishable by death by the Population Police. Luke must hide in an attic to keep his existence a secret, he cannot go to school, or even leave the house and he has little hope for the future until he meets another shadow child who has big plans to defy the government and try to change the lives of all shadow children. But when tragedy strikes, Luke must take a terrible risk to try to keep himself and his family safe.

Opinion:
While I thought that the dialogue was stilted in places, Haddix does a good job of maintaining pacing while setting up the back story of the book. It's an easy read, but it holds appeal for older readers for its action.

Ideas:
With the new found popularity of dystopias, recommend this for tweens who may not be ready to tackle Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series. 

Catching Fire

Catching Fire. by Suzanne Collins. (2009). 391p. New York: Scholastic Press.

Awards and Honors: Publishers Weekly's Best Book Of The Year: Children's Fiction, A Booklist Editors' Choice, 2009

Review: 

The second installment of Suzanne Collins' wildly popular Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire is a fast paced, plot-driven adventure. In Catching Fire, Katniss has won the Hunger Games, but at what price? Katniss quickly learns that President Snow means to make her pay for her act of defiance in the Arena, but she also discovers that the monolithic dominance of the Capital may not be as powerful as it seems. The second book in the series, while still action-packed, focuses more on the workings of Panem, the incipient rebellion and Katniss's role as the face of that rebellion.

Opinion:

Although Catching Fire furthered the overall narrative arc, I found this novel to be less powerful than Collins' first book in the series, which was made more compelling with Katniss's relationships with Prim and Rue.

Ideas:

There are a slew of dystopic novels being published right now. Catching Fire has been massively popular with young people who may not typically read many novels, and thus makes an great way to segue young readers into other books.