I decided to read “Among the Betrayed” by Margaret Peterson Haddix because I read her first two books in the shadow child sequence and I loved them. “Among the Betrayed was an attention-grabbing book. I kept wanting to read more. The main character is this book is Nina. Nina is a shadow child with a fake identity. She used to live with her aunt until she moved to the school for girls. Nina has a friend named Jason who also is a shadow child with a fake identity who went to the school for boys. They met in the woods between their schools. Jason and Nina were caught trying to send in illegal third children for a reward. Three other characters are the three children Nina is supposed to betray. The children’s names are Percy, Matthias, and Alia. Percy is nine, Matthias is ten, and Alia is six.The background behind the first two books in the sequence is that families are only allowed to have two children because of the shortage of food. Many families disobeyed this law and had more than two children. At the start of “Among the Betrayed” the book takes place at the Population Police Prison when Nina wakes up in a prison cell. The book takes place in the future but the specific time period was never stated in the book. Nina thinks it is all a dream. Then she gets called to a conference room that is very luxurious. The man talking to her tells her that her friend Jason had betrayed her and told them that everything was her idea. She then finds out that they killed Jason. Nina gets moved to a cell with Alia, Matthias, and Percy. The population police tell Nina that she has a certain amount of time to figure out the real names of the three children. One day the four of them escape when a prison guard gets poisoned. They go to Nina’s school. Someone at the school turns them in. Nina then finds out that the whole thing was fake and a test to see if Nina was trustworthy. One major theme in this book is trust. Percy, Matthias, and Alia have to be able to trust Nina to tell them their secrets. Another theme would be survival. Nina and the kids have to learn to survive off of little to no food and when they do get food it is moldy or stale. They also have to learn to survive after escaping from the prison when they are out on their own. I would recommend this book to any junior high or high school boy or girl that loves to read action books. This book definitely was filled with action and suspense. I really enjoyed reading this book.
Among the BetrayedtThe main character is Nina, and she is the third born child in her family. Nina is illegal, because she is the third born of her family, and third born children are illegal, because it is hard times where she lives. Nina used to live with her aunt’s, but she got caught. For third born children to try and not get caught, people make fake ID’s for them to try and help them.tThe book is about a girl, (Nina), who gets caught being an illegal, and she is then thrown in prison. The guards start to ask her questions about her old life, and what she used to do, and where she got the fake ID from. Guards come into Nina’s cell with a recorder, and they play it back to her, and it is Jason, her friend, blaming Nina for everything. Then the guards take her to a different room and make a deal with her. If Nina helps them, then they might not kill her. Then, Nina gets put into a cell with three other children. The Population Police put her in there to try and see if she can get them to confess to who gave them the fake IDs. They don’t, and the guards tell her she has one more day and if she fails, the Population Police will kill her. So they escape, and come to find out, it was all a trick. It was all fake, the guards, and the three children. It was all a test for Nina.tIn the beginning, the story takes place in a prison, where the Population Police hold the third born children. The cell that holds Nina and the three other children, (Percy, Alia, and Matthias), is like a dungeon. It is all wet, and cold, and nasty, and they only get food once in a great while. When the children do get food, it is moldy and hard. Then Nina gets the keys, and all four of them escape, and go into the woods. They all start to head to Nina’s old school to find her friend. She finds her friend at her old school, but she gets caught by some boys, for stealing from their garden, and they take her to the owner. And then, that’s when they tell her it was all a test.tI would rate this book at four stars. This is a great book for someone who likes action, and mystery novels. The theme of this book would be that you can’t trust everybody, or be careful who/ what you believe. Also, things may not be as they seem.
What do You think about Among The Betrayed (2002)?
This book is very fun to read. What I like about the book is that there are very good planning skills to escape. The journey and the challenges Nina does are hard to read about. She is very good at thinking and solving problems. She has been arrested by the population police because they think she is working with her friend Jason. She has to choose to lie to the police or betray Jason. Nina is a third illegal child, but she minds her own business. She has to act like she is not a third child and has to make fake identification to make her look like she is a legal child. The aunt is now watching Nina because Nina has no parents. The aunt has been taking every precaution she can to keep her safe and not taken away. That all changes when she has been taken to the population police prison. She does not know what happened and is asking questions about Jason. I recommend this book to brave, teenage boys and girls and also adults. The scenes and the actions are what make this book scary. This book deals with other children in prison.
—Ryan Emond
In the book among the betrayed by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Nina is put to the test. In this 156 page realistic fiction thriller, Nina's life appears to be on the line. This book takes turns that you would never expect and it really keeps you interested. Out of the books that I have read so far this one has to be the best. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in or wants to get started reading. This is another 5 star book written by haddix.In the book, Nina is taken to population police headquarters and is questioned all night long. She eventually is taken to a cell which is more like a dungeon. There she meets Percy, Matthias, and Alia. The tree are reluctant too meet her at first and Nina is afraid of what she has to do. The question you ask now is what does she have to do? You have to read the book in order to find out. Along the way they get along and the mad man who questions Nina leaves “a door” open. Not a literal door but something very important to the book.tThe four of them have a run in with guards at a bridge and eventually come face to face with the mad man again. Who is the mad man? Where are the four of them going? What’s going to happen? All these are questions you want answered and the eventually are in the book. This book is filled with surprises.'They're going to kill me,' Nina whispered, and it was almost a relief to finally, finally give up hope."- Margaret Peterson Haddix"Everything that had happened to Nina was real. She had real handcuffs on her wrists, real scars on her back, real fear flooding her mind. GoodreadsAWARDSYALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2003 A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, 2003 International Reading Association/Children's Book Council Children's Choice, 2003 Lamplighter Award, 2004-2005
—Jalen
IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
—Khloe
