A review by weaselweader
Among the Barons by Margaret Peterson Haddix
3.0
“Mother, remember how you always wanted to have four boys?”
AMONG THE BARONS posits a famine-stricken, dystopian, totalitarian world governed by strict population control laws which condemn a third child to death merely by virtue of its existence. To exist and hide with a false name and false identification renders the offense an aggravated crime punishable by death by torture at the government's choice. Book four in the SHADOW CHILDREN multi-novel sequence, AMONG THE BARONS brings readers up to date on Luke Garner’s story.
For the time being at least, Luke is granted the chance to draw a breath in relative calm and safety using the ID information and alias of a deceased Lee Grant at Hendricks School for Boys, a small private school whose headmaster seems able to keep the school and the boys off the Population Police radar. But the proverbial brown stuff hits the fan when Lee’s real little brother, Smits, arrives at the school, throwing around lies, wealth and privilege like snowflakes in a veritable blizzard. The lies, which grow more complicated and entangled with every passing day, make Luke abundantly aware that Smits knows he is not Lee. But Luke has no idea who to trust about what and whose side Smits and his bodyguard Oscar are on.
AMONG THE BARONS is the story of the search for courage to stand up to a totalitarian government; the coming of age realization that there are false people in the world who would claim friendship but offer betrayal for their own venal purposes; the realization that, from time to time, life offers only choices which represent variations on ugly outcomes; that maturity and growing sometimes means choosing and accepting the least of all possible evils. It is worth pointing out to potential young readers that AMONG THE BARONS also explores the pitfalls of society’s allowing greed, wealth, power and privilege to deteriorate into a force driving the development and implementation of right wing authoritarian autocracies whose sole motivation is the retention of that privilege for an elite patriarchy. Nothing else, NOTHING else, including even blood ties and family, seem to be able to “trump” the demands of that wealth and power (word play most definitely intended).
Four down, three to go. Eagerly onward to AMONG THE BRAVE. Thanks to Margaret Peterson Haddix for an enjoyable, diverting and compelling young adult series.
Paul Weiss
AMONG THE BARONS posits a famine-stricken, dystopian, totalitarian world governed by strict population control laws which condemn a third child to death merely by virtue of its existence. To exist and hide with a false name and false identification renders the offense an aggravated crime punishable by death by torture at the government's choice. Book four in the SHADOW CHILDREN multi-novel sequence, AMONG THE BARONS brings readers up to date on Luke Garner’s story.
For the time being at least, Luke is granted the chance to draw a breath in relative calm and safety using the ID information and alias of a deceased Lee Grant at Hendricks School for Boys, a small private school whose headmaster seems able to keep the school and the boys off the Population Police radar. But the proverbial brown stuff hits the fan when Lee’s real little brother, Smits, arrives at the school, throwing around lies, wealth and privilege like snowflakes in a veritable blizzard. The lies, which grow more complicated and entangled with every passing day, make Luke abundantly aware that Smits knows he is not Lee. But Luke has no idea who to trust about what and whose side Smits and his bodyguard Oscar are on.
AMONG THE BARONS is the story of the search for courage to stand up to a totalitarian government; the coming of age realization that there are false people in the world who would claim friendship but offer betrayal for their own venal purposes; the realization that, from time to time, life offers only choices which represent variations on ugly outcomes; that maturity and growing sometimes means choosing and accepting the least of all possible evils. It is worth pointing out to potential young readers that AMONG THE BARONS also explores the pitfalls of society’s allowing greed, wealth, power and privilege to deteriorate into a force driving the development and implementation of right wing authoritarian autocracies whose sole motivation is the retention of that privilege for an elite patriarchy. Nothing else, NOTHING else, including even blood ties and family, seem to be able to “trump” the demands of that wealth and power (word play most definitely intended).
Four down, three to go. Eagerly onward to AMONG THE BRAVE. Thanks to Margaret Peterson Haddix for an enjoyable, diverting and compelling young adult series.
Paul Weiss