Best-selling author Haddix speaks to students

by Alesaundra Curry, Student Reporter 

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On Saturday, November 13, 2021, Ohdela celebrated “Literacy Day” in the Extended Learning Course Card. To celebrate, Extended Learning hosted 3 events lasting one hour each. The first event was the one I attended which let fans of “Among the Hidden” talk to the amazing author behind it, Margaret Peterson Haddix. 

During the meeting, Haddix talked about not just her award-winning young-adult novel Among the Hidden or Amongst the Hidden, as the British would say, but she also talked about some of her other books such as Remarkables, or Greystone Secrets One, not to mention the remarkable Shadow Children series starring books like Among the Betrayed, Among the Hidden, and Among the Barons. Haddix went into amazing detail about many of the books in this article. What was truly fascinating about the meeting was that she explained the story behind them without accidentally giving out spoilers. 

The Interview 
Haddix realized she wanted to be a writer In the third grade. “I was reading a book and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the book so much I created what is now called ‘fan fictions’ for it,” she said.

Haddix was 26 when she started her first book. “but I did not enjoy it,” she said. “I do not know why. I just did not like it, so I ended up being 31 when I finished it.” 

When asked what her favorite of her many books was, Haddix responded: “This is a hard question for me to answer, I have always thought of my books as I think of my children. It would be very difficult to pick my favorite book, I don't want to hurt their feelings.”

 Among the Hidden
The Zoom conference was based around Haddix’s book Among the Hidden, and she made sure to give a greatly detailed explanation as to where the idea for the book came from. 

“I got the idea when my husband and I were debating on whether or not we should have another kid,” Haddix said. “We already had two children who were very young, so having another at that time would be a lot. I was thinking about the idea of another kid and somehow thought of how in China people were only allowed to have two children, and that's when I thought ‘This is going to be a great book idea!”’
She then talked about the plot of the book. “The book is about our main character, Luke Garner, who is the third child of his family and where they live only allows two children. The book follows the life of Luke and what it is like being hidden from the rest of the world,” stated Haddix.

If you would like to know more about this author, click these links. 
https://haddixbooks.com/

https://haddixbooks.com/book/among-the-hidden/?pg=bonus