City of Hidden Children by Victoria Randall tackles the challenge of what it would be like to live in a world where parents need a license to have a child. The consequences of not having this license are threatening to both the parents and their child. The subject matter is both engaging and disturbing, and this book, no doubt, mirrors some very real possibilities were such laws in place or wherever such laws are in place. Katy, the seventeen-year-old protagonist, possesses the level of maturity that makes it easy for older people to enjoy this fiction. At the same time, the young adult audience will have no problem relating to her. This story jump starts with disturbing dreams that set Katy on her course and that take readers on a compelling ride into a city where children are hidden, and in more ways than one.

The plot unfolds in a way that educates readers about the world of this story while maintaining continuous tension because readers are kept in the dark about certain important details until they need to know them. Moreover, Victoria Randall’s City of Hidden Children has great pacing. I didn't encounter any places where the story lagged. Even the mundane tasks are surrounded with the kind of foreshadowing that lends itself to the overall tension of the story. While the science-fiction element is there, it is secondary to the main focus. Still, the futuristic effects will keep young minds interested, and I could easily own one of those skimmers.

City of Hidden Children: Book Three of Children in Hiding by Victoria Randall is a great, original futurist sci-fi story where the Bureau of Population Management (BPM) take their jobs seriously. There is an ordinance that all children born must be licensed, and it’s the job of the BPM to find them. If a child is born and not licensed, where do they go? These ‘unlicensed’ children are then taken to the Children’s Center where, if they stay in the system long enough, they must work for their keep. Katy Sawyer has been struggling with a recurring dream that causes her to continually revisit childhood memories and the images of two little girls. The irony is that she doesn’t have any memories of her childhood, nor does she know who these two girls are because she appears to have amnesia. She later learns that the two girls, Melinda and Patty, were her best friends, but where are they? How are they now? She asked both of her parents and a trusted family friend about her childhood, but all of them appear to want to keep that part of her life a secret. One day a close encounter with Emil, a runaway from the Children’s Center, changes everything.

City of Hidden Children: Book Three of Children in Hiding by Victoria Randall is a cool story with a futurist backdrop with some elements that remind me of the cartoon TV program, The Jetsons. With each chapter the truth about the Children’s Center and the BPM begins to unravel. Katy and Emil have a lot more in common than they realize. As you venture into the abyss of City of Hidden Children, you will become one with the story. As you begin to read about the operations of the BPM, unlicensed children and The Children’s Center, they will enter into your subconscious mind and cause you to ponder ... what if these elements were instrumental in our world today, or will it be in the future?