I've been toying with reading this series for a long time. My niece and my sister read several of them a couple of years ago and really liked them. But the cover art looked a little spooky to me and I'm not really into scary books anymore. Then Kate read this one (the first in the series) for her book club at school so I decided to read it too. It reminded me a lot of the Hunger Games series. And as a bonus, the book was pretty short too. The premise of the story is that on a future earth ravaged by war and famine, the government has made a law that you can only have two children. However, some people still have a third child, either by accident or on purpose. But they are forced to hide these children so the Population Police don't find them and kill them and possibly the whole family. The story is told from the viewpoint of Luke, one of the hidden children. It's a great premise and pretty interesting story--probably not as gripping as Hunger Games, but still intriguing. Most likely I will continue on with the next book, Among the Impostors (there are about 7 or 8 in the series). I love science fiction because it makes you think about lots of issues.My favorite part in the book is when Luke is discussing the population law with someone and he asks Luke what he knows. Luke says that he has read the government's books and some underground rebuttals. The man says, "So you got the propaganda from both sides. No truth." And when Luke asks what the truth is, he responds, "The truth, nobody really knows. There have been too many lies for too long." I thought about how true a picture this is about the facts surrounding most volatile issues. Good thing we have a prophet to tell us the truth.
