Luke asks Jen's father what happened to her because she and all the other 'hidden children' went to the President's house to have a rally and ask for their freedom to live as all the other children do. And not just in passing, but in gruesome detail. I was absolutely horrified when Jen, the 13 year old 'hidden' girl that Luke meets, is killed. As well as China's practices of this very subject. Especially with the state of the world right now and when you have a child, for instance, who has a very deep thought process and imagination as well and is very aware of the bigger picture.Īs a grown adult, almost 50, it rocked me to my core, because I see the similarities of our own government and those around the world implementing these ideas, and programming the masses for this sort of totalitarian world. PARENTS BEWARE - I am heart broken and have serious questions as to why this book was chosen for 6th graders in our school to read for class and how the traumatizing and seriously disturbing the tone of the whole book is, and how on earth this is beneficial to the kids. They don't care.' But that one paragraph with the graphic detail that really made me pause. They talk about the possibility of dying at this rally (but not how), and Jen's dad mentions a little later, 'They probably would have shot a thousand. The rest of the story is fine enough if you child is OK with the overall premise. I then read that chapter to him and omitted the majority of the above paragraph. We compromised that he was able to read the book until he got to that chapter and then he needed to stop.

But they had the sidewalks scrubbed before the tourists came, so nobody would know.' Maybe some 7 year olds would be OK with reading that, but that's not an image I wanted in my son's head at this age. All forty kids at the rally, gunned down right in front of the president's house.

Luke asks Jen's father what happened and he replies, 'They shot her. And not just in passing, but in quite a bit of detail. Jen, the 13 year old 'hidden' girl that Luke (the main character) meets, is killed. However, there was one part I was not comfortable with at all. fantasy so I was OK with him reading most of it. My 7 year old has always done well with distinguishing fact vs. Overall, it was a great book that would be appropriate for 10ish up, depending on maturity level. I was cautious given the synopsis on the back cover along with info that people have said here, so I read it first to make sure.

He checked it out from the school library and was SO excited to start reading it when he got home. My 1st grader heard about this series through a friend with older siblings. I like to write reviews with more detail to help those like myself who have young readers who read above reading level and may or may not be ready for various books.

Haddix among the hidden series