LIttle Brother

Author: Cory Doctorow

ISBN:978-0765323118

Publication Information: Tor Teen

Plot Summary:Marcus is hoping to have a great Friday afternoon by ditching school and meeting up with her friends to work on a worldwide scavenger hunt, Harajuku Fun Madness. But Marcus and his friends' scavenger hunting is cut short when San Francisco is rocked by a terrorist attack. Homeland Security swoops down on San Francisco and takes Marcus and his friends into custody. After a harrowing two weeks locked up, Marcus is finally released, but his friend Darryl isn't. Cynical at the government, Marcus launches a technological war on Homeland Security to counteract the "safety" measures that they've imposed on the city. Soon, other teens are taking up the cause and the movement against Homeland Security grows. Can Marcus lead a revolution against the government and find his friend, or is he a marked man?

Critical Evaluation:Some may be turned off by the extensive technological explanations, but overall, many teens will love this fast paced novel. Marcus is a great protagonist, he is a teen that has head head screwed on straight, but still goes through moments of self doubt, embarrassment, and being scared of the choices he has made. The characters and well developed, and the plot pacing is insanely fast, but there are be teens that won't want to read the book because of its heavy slant towards hacking, gaming systems, and other technologies. Doctorow spends time explaining each of Marcus' online actions, and why he is doing them, but it still may be either uninteresting or too hard to understand for less tech savvy teens. But still, any book with a teen standing up against "the man" and successfully uniting a group of young people will certainly be enticing for a great many teens, and should be recommended to any gamer, avid texter, or hacker that walks into your library.

Reader's Annotation: After San Francisco is hit by a terrorist attack, Homeland Security swoops down and captures and interrogates everyone that is on the street, including 17 year old Marcus. After Marcus is released, he launches a technological war against the government as a way to fight back and get even.

Author Information: Cory Doctorow was born and raised in Canada, and is the co-editor of Boing, Boing, a tech based blog. He is also a tech activist, young adult writer and journalist. He is a regular contributor to Wired magazine, Popular Science magazine, and The New York Times, among many other publications. Doctorow also founded an open source peer-to-peer software company called Open Cola, which he later sold in 2003 to Open Text, Inc. He has a daughter, and currently lives in the Bay Area. (Information taken from the author's website http://craphound.com/bio.php).

Curricular Ties: Technology, American History

Genre:Issues, Urban Life, Cyberpunk

Book talking ideas:

• Do you think Marcus did the right thing by taking on Homeland Security?
• How did you feel about the way that Marcus' parents treated Marcus when he began to target Homeland Security?
• Discuss the relationship between Marcus and Angela.
  

Challenge issues: Sex, underage drinking

• Familiarize yourself with the book and its contents.
• Check the library for specific policies on challenged books.
• Check the ALA website for advice on how to respond and react when a book has been challenged. (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/index.cfm)
  
• Find positive reviews from reputable websites.
• Ask the challenger for their specific objections and try to address them using information from the above research.

Interest Age: Grades 10 and up

Why I selected this piece: As a resident of San Francisco, this was a great read because the background is so familiar and vibrant. A great read for any San Francisco teen.