Little Brother

Doctorow, Cory. Little Brother. ISBN-10 076531983, ISBN-13 9780765319852. Tor Teen. 2008.

Summary
San Francisco is attacked by terrorists, and Marcus and his friends are caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of the sudden, an afternoon of skipping school has turned sour for this group of high schooler hackers. They are arrested, detained and caught in a brutal struggle with the Department of Homeland Security, as the DHS has made San Fransico a police state where everyone is a suspect—especially anyone who is smart enough to see through the DHS online privacy invations. Marcus sees a way to expose the travesties of the DHS, but can he and a group of other teen hackers fight back against the government?

Critical Evaluation
Little Brother is George Orwell's 1984 for a new generation. A group of very savvy hackers are skipping school when their lives are changed forever. They are detained and viciously mistreated by the Department of Homeland Security in the name of keeping San Francisco safe from further terrorist attacks. But Marcus and his friends see that it's perhaps the zealots of DHS who are causing much of the panic. Young adult readers who understand the hacker technology will enjoy that aspect of the novel, but there is a strong story to keep other readers gripped until the end of the book.

Reader's Annotation
Marcus is smart, but is he smart enough to fight back against the government who think he's guilty of treason?

About the Author
Cory Doctorow is far more than a Canadian science fiction author. He's a co-founder of a company for software sharing, an activist, blogger, editor of a weblog BoingBoing as well as contributor to The Guardian, Wired and many other websites, magazines and newspapers. He's been nominated for several awards like the Hugo and Nebula, and has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards which celebrates excellence in Canadian Literature.

Maybe many of his post-scarcity ideas come from being raised by extremely motivated activist parents. That idea of practically free good for all and the common threads of digital rights management and file sharing flow through Doctorow's fiction and non-fiction work. He has served on several boards that support his passion, as well as serving in several visiting and virtual teaching positions.

Genre
Science Fiction
Young Men
Friendship

Curriculum Ties
History: Government

Booktalking Ideas
Would you fight back against the government if you felt they were wrong...

How would you rebel against your government if you felt you were wrongly accused…

Awards
American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults

Challenges

Anti-Governement issues

Reading Level/Interest Age
Ages 15+

Why I included this title...
Again this is a book I might not have chosen on my own; but, as it was required, I read it and found myself enjoying the story.

More Information
Powells.com.http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780765319852-13