Margaret Peterson Haddix

Biography

Margaret Peterson Haddix (born 1964) grew up in rural Ohio, the daughter of farmers — a background that directly informs the Garner family's agricultural setting and economic struggles. She worked as a journalist before turning to fiction, and her reportorial instinct for factual precision shapes the novel's worldbuilding. Among the Hidden was her breakthrough book, published in 1998, and spawned six sequels in the Shadow Children series. Haddix has spoken publicly about her interest in how governments control information and how children navigate systems designed by adults.

Margaret Peterson Haddix at a glance