50 Fun Facts About Among the Hidden

In Among the Hidden, what makes twelve-year-old Luke Garner illegal under the Population Law?

Being a third child is a crime because the law allows each family only two. Luke has never had a friend or met anyone outside his own family.

In Among the Hidden, what does Luke Garner spot in a neighbor's window that changes his life?

A child's face appears at the window after that family's two sons have left for the day, so Luke knows someone else is in hiding. Until then he had no idea whether he was the only one.

In Among the Hidden, what happens to Jen and the other children who attend her rally?

They are shot dead by the police, every one of them, and the Government keeps the rally off the news. Luke learns the truth only when he slips back into Jen's house to look for her.

In Among the Hidden, what are the rich city families who move in beside the Garner farm called?

Barons have money, power and luxuries nobody else can get. Luke's father and brothers scoff at their fancy clothes, which even the children wear.

In Among the Hidden, what new name does Luke Garner live under after he leaves the farm?

Lee Grant was a real boy from a wealthy family, and his identity papers let Luke step out of hiding for the first time in his life.

In Among the Hidden, what does Jen's father hand the Population Police officers as a bribe?

Fur coats, kept out of sight in the house, buy off the officers just as they come within inches of finding Luke. Jen's father warns that the trick only buys a little time.

In Among the Hidden, which banned snack does Jen share with Luke Garner at her house?

Potato chips and soda are outlawed as junk food, yet wealthy families like Jen's can still get hold of them. Some poorer families, she says, can barely feed the child they are hiding.

In Among the Hidden, where does Jen plan to stage her protest for hidden children?

The president's house is the target: Jen wants the children to stand on its lawn and refuse to leave until they have the same rights as everyone else.

In Among the Hidden, what does the Government cut down beside the Garner farm to build houses?

The woods were the cover that let Luke play and work outdoors unseen, so when the trees fall he loses the open air for good.

In Among the Hidden, Luke Garner and his brothers Matthew and Mark share their names with whom?

Gospel writers Matthew, Mark and Luke lend the three Garner boys their names, a hint that this hardworking farm family is a religious one.

In Among the Hidden, which windowless part of the farmhouse is Luke Garner's bedroom?

The attic suits Luke well enough apart from its lack of a view. He passes the hours there with hand-me-down toys and the family's few books.

In Among the Hidden, where is Luke Garner sent to live once he leaves his family's farm?

A boarding school means Luke never has to pretend to love a set of stand-in parents, a relief to a boy who has just left his real ones.

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix is the opening novel of which seven-book series?

Shadow Children is also Jen's name for illegal kids like herself and Luke. Haddix had not planned a sequel, then went on to write six more books.

In Among the Hidden, what does Luke Garner peer through to watch the new houses being built?

Roof vents at either end of his room give Luke his only view of the world outside. One looks over the road and the other over the building site.

In Among the Hidden, where must Luke Garner eat his meals once builders start work nearby?

On the stairs Luke is out of sight of the kitchen windows, after a worker's remark showed that shades pulled on a hot day look suspicious. From there he can hardly hear his family talk.

In Among the Hidden, which animals does a Government letter order the Garner family to get rid of?

Their pigs were the farm's main earner, yet the letter calls them a health hazard so close to the new houses. Selling grain alone does not pay enough.

In Among the Hidden, what kind of job does Luke Garner's mother take to pay a huge tax bill?

Factory work keeps her away all day, so Luke loses the one person who kept him company. One night she is so tired that she falls asleep halfway through telling him a story.

In Among the Hidden, what nickname does Luke Garner give the neighbors Jen turns out to live with?

The Sports Family earned the name from the piles of athletic equipment they own. Luke gave the other new households nicknames of the same kind.

In Among the Hidden, how does Luke Garner get past the locked door on his first trip to Jen's house?

He breaks the screen with his hand and reaches through to undo the latch. After all his careful planning, Luke had never imagined the door might not open.

In Among the Hidden, what does Jen do the moment she first notices Luke Garner in her home?

She tackles him and twists his arm behind his back, taking Luke for a burglar. She lets go only when he whispers that the Population Police must not come.

In Among the Hidden, what is Jen's father pointing at Luke Garner when the two first meet?

A gun is something Luke knows only from books and his father's stories, because they are outlawed for everyone but Government officials. Jen's father lowers it once Luke says he is her friend.

In Among the Hidden, where does Luke Garner hide when the Population Police burst into Jen's house?

In a closet, Luke pulls a blanket over himself as the officers throw the door open. He is certain he is about to die, yet they leave without finding him.

In Among the Hidden, why does Jen creep into Luke Garner's room the night before the rally?

To say goodbye: Jen says she understands why Luke is staying behind and tells him she will miss him. Then she is gone.

Which real-world government rule helped inspire Margaret Peterson Haddix to write Among the Hidden?

China's one-child policy came up while Haddix and her husband were debating whether to have more than two children. Those talks about overpopulation grew into Luke's story.

In Among the Hidden, what does Luke Garner resolve to do once he has a legal identity?

Help other illegal children: that is the aim, and Luke means to pursue it quietly. He imagines learning to grow more food, or finding a way for people to live on other planets.

In Among the Hidden, what is the surname of Jen, the first friend Luke Garner ever makes?

Talbot is the name of a powerful household: Jen introduces herself in full as Jennifer Rose, and her father turns out to work for the Government.

In Among the Hidden, how did the real boy whose identity Luke Garner takes lose his life?

A skiing accident killed the boy only the night before Luke left the farm. He came from a wealthy household, so Luke must now pass as rich.

In Among the Hidden, how does Jen's father warn Luke Garner that the house is bugged?

He writes it down because every word spoken in the house is being recorded. His first message tells Luke to stay silent.

In Among the Hidden, how does Jen cover for the blood Luke Garner leaves behind at her house?

She cuts her own hand in the same way, so her parents will believe she did the damage herself. Luke is amazed at such loyalty from someone he has only just met.

In Among the Hidden, what of Luke Garner's does Jen run through a Government database?

His fingerprints matched no record at all, which told Jen that Luke was truly hidden and could be trusted. Only then did she show him her secret chat room.

In Among the Hidden, which farming method does Luke Garner suggest his father try in the basement?

Hydroponics, growing plants in water and light without soil, is an idea Luke takes from a book Jen lends him. His father is soon at the library reading up on it.

In Among the Hidden, which disasters led the Government to pass the Population Law?

Famines and droughts some twenty years earlier left people starving, so the Government rationed food and took over farming. Jen's father later confirms that the hunger was real.

In Among the Hidden, which hand-me-down plaything does Luke Garner knock over in frustration?

A toy train passed down from his brothers is one of the few things Luke has to fill the hours, and Mark teases him for still playing with it.

In Among the Hidden, what does Luke Garner bake as a surprise when he sneaks into the kitchen?

Bread was meant as a treat for his worn-out mother, but the loaves come out flat and taste awful. His father catches him at it and orders him back into hiding.

In Among the Hidden, why did Jen's mother, who already had two sons, risk having another baby?

She wanted a daughter so much that she and her husband paid a doctor to make sure the baby would be a girl. Unlike Luke, Jen was planned.

In Among the Hidden, which outings does Jen's mother take her on with a forged pass?

Shopping trips matter so much to Jen's mother that she smuggles Jen along, tucked into a secret compartment until they are far from home.

In Among the Hidden, what does Luke Garner check for days, hoping for news of the rally?

The radio never mentions the rally, because the Government is suppressing the story. After a week and a half of silence, Luke decides to cross the yard and find out for himself.

Which Margaret Peterson Haddix novel picks up Luke Garner's story after he leaves his family's farm?

Among the Impostors arrived three years after the first book and follows Luke as he tries to live under his borrowed name.

In Among the Hidden, why did Luke Garner's mother think her new baby could soon stop hiding?

The law would be repealed soon, she assumed, because it was brand new when Luke was on the way. Instead the Government kept it and began enforcing it more harshly.

In Among the Hidden, what did a member of Jen's old playgroup keep even though pets are banned?

A dog astonishes Luke, since keeping pets is against the law. Every child in that playgroup was an illegal one, just like Jen.

In Among the Hidden, how does Jen's hacking thin out the Population Police before the rally?

She gives officers days off by breaking into Government computers, a feat that leaves her exhausted but proud.

In Among the Hidden, who was the only outsider Luke Garner had ever seen before the builders came?

A homeless man once came to the farm asking for food, and little Luke peeked out from his hiding place to look at him. The sight of a whole crew of workers leaves him overwhelmed.

Margaret Peterson Haddix, who wrote Among the Hidden, grew up on a farm in which American state?

Ohio is where Haddix was raised, on a farm between the small towns of Washington Court House and Sabina, in a family of farmers and keen readers.

In Among the Hidden, Jen's father tells the police his chat-room message was part of what?

A sting operation is his bluff: he claims he posed as Jen online all along to trap illegal children, and even says he was honored at a ceremony for it.

In Among the Hidden, whose pride does Jen's father blame for keeping the Population Law alive?

General Sherwood took power after the famines by promising order and food, and Jen's father says the law is probably no longer needed but has become his proudest accomplishment.

Which novel was the first book ever published by Among the Hidden author Margaret Peterson Haddix?

Running Out of Time was accepted after a long spell of rejections and came out while Haddix was pregnant with her second child.

In Among the Hidden, which classic fantasy is used to describe how baffled Luke Garner feels?

Alice in Wonderland is one of the old books Luke has read at home, so its heroine's bewilderment is the comparison that comes to him.

In Among the Hidden, which chat-room friend of Jen's grumbles online about the heat?

Carlos is one of three regulars, with Sean and Yolanda, who complain that they cannot turn on the air conditioning. They tease Jen for sleeping late and she mocks their spelling.

In Among the Hidden, what does Luke Garner's father use to decode a letter from the Government?

A dictionary gets him through a letter from the Department of Human Habitation's Environmental Standards Division, whose wording is as forbidding as its name.

In Among the Hidden, what is Luke Garner's father unable to afford at a farm auction?

A tractor was beyond his budget at the sale, so he comes home in a foul temper on the very night the household has to eat Luke's failed baking.