book review: Among the Free

A review of "Among the Free"

How is Among the Free like the Holocaust ? Can it become our future?


Stopped dead in your tracks as you hear the loud banging of the door followed by a horrible sound of scary men who call themselves population police. Once you hear that chills run down your spin as you go into hiding. At the same time you family is trying to erase any evidence that you were there. You crouch down in a small space in the dusty attic. So many thoughts are racing through you mind as you hope you don't get caught, you pray that they don't find you. At a long inspection they finally leave and you are free to come out of hiding.

As horrible as that sounds this is a usual procedure for Margret Patterson Haddix's characters in her book Among the free ( from the series shadow children). The Shadow Children series is a futuristic based book about a society where the government only allows two kids per family due to droughts and famines. In the book Luke Garners is a twelve year old boy has never experienced life outside of his house because he is a third child. Now after getting a fake ID and posing as Lee Grant he is going to risk his life to take down the population police. After reading this series question popped up in my mind. Is Among the free like the Holocaust? Could this eventually become our future?

Like the Holocaust , many people were killed in Among the free. Innocent people died because they were born 3rd. In the book they would hire what they call population police to get rid of [kill] 3rd children. Population police were so big they could have been considered an army. The Population Police were equivalent to the Nazi. They killed and controlled Innocents. That would mean the third children were equivalent to the Jewish back during the holocaust.

Among the free is a very powerful book. In my opinion the whole series is addicting, but as good as it is what would it be like if it became reality? With the way things our going in America, I'm honestly afraid of our future. Droughts and famines were the reason for this incredibly insane law for less population. People got this crazy idea that third children were the reason. Although the population is getting bigger I don't see a better reason to destroy a human bean. Even with the crazy accusations of this fictional book, could people ( presidents mainly) be inspired by this. Possibly even think is is a great idea?

Could this possibly be our future? Could America be taken over in these preposterous thoughts? Could Among the free and another holocaust become our future? Could we those millions and lose our freedom? Just the thought scares me out of my wits. I guess we will just have to see what the future holds for us!
-Antonese Robertson