Among the Hidden Study Guide

Haddix grew up on a farm in rural Ohio with three siblings. Her father was a farmer and her mother was a nurse; both parents were book-lovers. Haddix read prolifically as a child and dreamed of being a writer herself, so she studied creative writing and journalism in college. She worked as a journalist for several years and finally decided to leave the profession when her husband, also a journalist, was promoted—he would’ve become her boss had she kept her job. Haddix began writing novels and short stories while also teaching writing at a community college. She sold her first two books while pregnant with her second child, and her career as a children’s and young adult author took off from there. She’s since written more than 40 books for young readers, several of which have been recognized with ALA awards or other honors. Haddix and her husband live in Columbus, Ohio.

China’s one-child policy is perhaps the best-known attempt to curb population growth in the name of improving a country’s economy, and it inspired Haddix to write Among the Hidden. While the policy was in place from 1980 to 2015, the Chinese government levied huge fines on families who had more than one child. The policy was enforced sporadically, though, and some people were able to apply for exceptions to have a second child. The government also forcibly sterilized people, mostly women, and mandated contraceptive use once couples had the maximum number of children allowed. While some parents of illegal second children placed their children for adoption, had their children taken from them, or paid the government’s fines, others simply didn’t register to get their children government ID documents. Known as heihaizi or “black children,” those children can’t access public services and don’t legally exist. While it’s worth noting that the novel’s protagonist, Luke, never figures out the truth about exactly why his government instituted a two-child policy, his friend Jen shares that they instituted the policy to avoid what’s known as a Malthusian catastrophe. Proposed by economist Thomas Robert Malthus in 1798, a Malthusian catastrophe is what would happen if the world’s population increased too fast for food production to keep up, and there wasn’t enough food to support the people on Earth. Though Malthusianism as it was originally proposed is sometimes considered overly pessimistic today (particularly because the idea was proposed before the Industrial Revolution and before advances in farming technology), overpopulation was still a concern into the 20th century and still concerns many today.

While Among the Hidden was initially intended to be a standalone novel, Haddix eventually wrote six more books that take place in the same world, some of which feature Luke. The series is known as the Shadow Children sequence. In addition to the Shadow Children sequence, Haddix has written more than 40 books for young readers of all ages. Within Among the Hidden, Haddix nods to George Orwell’s famous novel 1984 when she writes about Mother fearing that the government will be able to see Luke through their television. Luke also mentions reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. More broadly, Among the Hidden is part of a subgenre of young adult and children’s literature that explores dystopian futures, particularly ones where young people are victims of totalitarian or otherwise inhumane governments. Other novels in the genre include Unwind by Neal Shusterman (in which unwanted children can be “unwound,” or harvested for parts, when they become teenagers), The Giver by Lois Lowry (which is often considered the first novel in the subgenre), and even the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, which focuses more on subverting a totalitarian government. Among the Hidden was inspired by China’s one-child policy (and its abolition in 2015), which has been the subject of a number of nonfiction books, such as China’s Hidden Children by Kay Ann Johnson and One Child: The Past and Future of China’s Most Radical Experiment by Mei Fong.