Little Brother

BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION:

Little Brother. Doctorow, Corey. Tor, New York. ISBN 0978-0-7653-1985-2

PLOT SUMMARY:

Marcus is a typical seventeen year old high school student. He is planning on leaving school grounds during a free period to meet with his friends to find the next clue in Harajuku Fun Madness (an alternate reality game). While in search of the clue, the Bay Bridge in San Francisco is the target of a terrorist attack. Marcus and his friends are in the wrong place at the wrong time during the attack and are targeted as possible terrorists. After he is interrogated and released, Marcus and his friends learn that the city is now under the control of the United States Department of Homeland Security, and they are being watched. Marcus and his friends rally together to fight the DHS to get their personal freedom back. Can a bunch of teens really take down the Department of Homeland Security?

CRITICAL EVALUATION:

Little Brother is a book that really makes the reader think about the freedom that we have in the United States. Cory Doctorow has created characters that are both likable and strong enough to fight for many of the freedoms that we take for granted in this country. The character of Marcus could be sitting in any classroom in the country. He is a computer whiz and knows more about computers than most of the adults in his life. He is believable and has a rebellious side that many teens can relate to. He is told by his father to conform to what his present society is and that the government is right to strip away freedom from its citizens in the name of national security. Marcus knows that this is not right and begins to fight for what he believes in. During his fight for freedom Marcus comes to understand that although he is a young he has the power to make a difference. He is willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the people of San Francisco. Marcus begins his journey as a teen playing a game and in the end he becomes a leader.

READER’S ANNOTATION:

The city of San Francisco has just become the target of a terrorist attack. It is up to Marcus and his high school friends to save the city from the control of the Department of Homeland Security.

AUTHOR:

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing (boingboing.net), and a contributor to The Guardian, the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wired, and many other newspapers, magazines and websites. He was formerly Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. He is a Visiting Senior Lecturer at Open University (UK) and Scholar in Virtual Residence at the University of Waterloo (Canada); in 2007, he served as the Fulbright Chair at the Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California.
His novels are published by Tor Books and HarperCollins UK and simultaneously released on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their re-use and sharing, a move that increases his sales by enlisting his readers to help promote his work. He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and British Science Fiction Awards.

He co-founded the open source peer-to-peer software company OpenCola, sold to OpenText, Inc in 2003, and presently serves on the boards and advisory boards of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the MetaBrainz Foundation, Technorati, Inc, the Organization for Transformative Works, Areae, the Annenberg Center for the Study of Online Communities, and Onion Networks, Inc. (Doctorow, 2011)

GENRE:

General Fiction

CURRICULUM TIES:

New York State: History, English

BOOK TALKING IDEAS:

What would you do if the Department of Homeland Security was following your every move?
Can a teen hacker really save the citizens of San Francisco from living in a police state?

READING LEVEL/INTEREST AGE:

Age 14 and up

CHALLENGE ISSUES:

Portraying computer hackers and challenging authority positively, sex, language

In order to prepare yourself should this book be challenged you may wish to take the following steps:

•Read the book or familiarize yourself with the book and its contents.
•Refer to the library’s collection development policy.
•Read the book reviews from sources such as Booklist, School Library Journal, Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA), Publisher’s Weekly, or BookSpot.com
•Seek the opinion of teen readers that have read the book.

Should this book be challenged you should follow the additional steps below:

•Advise the senior staff of the challenge.
•Let the patron know that their challenge will be filed and that senior library management will review their request and notify them once a decision has been made.
•Offer any further assistance should the patron have additional questions.

WHY DID I INCLUDE THIS BOOK?
Little Brother was required reading for this class.