Haddix, Margaret Peterson. 1998. Among the hidden. New York: Simon & Shuster.

Luke has never disobeyed his parents’ command to come inside the house. Nor has Luke ever seen or been seen by anyone outside his family. Luke is a third child in a time where third children are not allowed. The year is 3903, and the government has passed the Population Law—a law that forbids families to have more than two children. Supposedly, the law was passed to ensure that there would be enough food for everyone. Luke had always been allowed to play in the woods behind his house, until the day that the government destroys the forest in order to build mansions for the barons, the elite class of the world. Since that day, Luke is forced to stay inside, away from windows and doors, and is even unable to eat at the table with his family. If his family is discovered, the punishment is five-million dollars or execution, depending on the mood of the judge. When Luke spies a face in the window of one of the baron mansions—a mansion owned by a family who already has two children, he realizes that he is not alone. In fact, there is an entire network of Shadow Children—children who are not supposed to exist, but do. Through his developing friendship with Jen, the girl he saw in the window, Luke is pushed to determine his own reality and to do something to end his life of hiding and be allowed to live life as a normal child. Haddix’s chilling and emotional beginning to a series of books about a future that is incomprehensible will thrill readers and will leave them anxiously awaiting the arrival of the next installment in the Shadow Children series.