Though Haddix had not intended to continue Among the Hidden, she began to explore other characters and other tangents in the subsequent six books in the series.

The conversations gradually led Haddix into creating Luke Garner, a twelve-year-old boy forced to live with strict controls and limited choices that result in him spending his life in hiding due to a government that said that he would not have the right to exist. Margaret Peterson Haddix began writing Among the Hidden after discussions with her husband regarding if they wanted to have more than two children, which developed into conversations concerning overpopulation, the earth's limited resources, and China's One Child Policy. In some cases, a parent may choose to forge a child's identification card so a shadow child can live a normal life. The Population Police enforce the government's Population Law, killing or imprisoning 'shadow children,' any child born after their first two siblings. Shadow Children is a series of seven books by Margaret Peterson Haddix about a dystopian country which suffers food shortages due to a drought and the effects of the government's totalitarian attempts to control resources as a way to solidify its power. Shadow Children Sequence Among the Hidden JSTOR ( December 2009) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.

Revealed margaret peterson haddix