Little Brother

Bibliographic Info

Title: Little Brother

Author: Cory Doctorow

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

Publication Date: 2008

ISBN: 9780765323118

Plot Summary

Marcus Yallow’s got his world wired – cool parents, good friends, the upper hand when it comes to his blustering vice-principal.  The worst he’s got to worry about is busting himself and his best friend out of sixth period to meet friends for his team sport of choice – an alternate reality game that’s part treasure hunt, part logic puzzle, and part trivia dig.

Getting out of class is no big trick though.  His school relies overmuch on technology in everything from snitching standard-issue laptops to gait recognition cameras, to library check-out systems on steroids, which monitor students’ locations as they pass sensors.  Marcus has his tech down though, and hacks around laptop surveillance; he’s got a solution for every prying piece of technology.

At the moment when a terrorist bomb hits San Francisco, Marcus’ carefree days are done.  He’s hauled in by the Department of Homeland Security as a possible terror suspect and is alternately humiliated, threatened, and tortured for days before he’s released.

Marcus returns to a world he doesn’t recognize where police will question anyone for taking a detour on the way home, schools start preaching anti-free speech propaganda; even Marcus’ father seems taken in by the need for the government to have their eye on absolutely everything.  And then there’s Marcus’ best friend Darryl.  Along with Marcus and two friends, Darryl was also taken to the makeshift prison, nicknamed Gitmo by the Bay.  Darryl never came back.  So with technology, with smarts, and with likeminded kids in numbers, Marcus decides to fight back.

Critical Evaluation

Smart, fast, yet with depth and complexity, Little Brother will appeal to anyone with a tech bent.  The issues blown up and examined in this story would likely touch a broader audience as we’re living in post 9-11 world, where the potential for terrorist attacks is actual, and if unchecked, could be upstaged by how our government, our teachers, and our neighbors respond.

Reader’s Annotation

Marcus Yallow is a smart, tech-savvy high school senior.  He’s got things set in his favor, but when a terrorist bomb hits his city of San Francisco, the U.S government makes him a target.  They don’t count on him fighting back.

Author Info

Cory Doctorow is a blogger, journalist, and author.  He’s an activist for copyright issues.  Doctorow co-founded a free peer to peer software corporation in 1999 and served as the first Independent Studies Scholar in Virtual Residence as the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada in 2009.

Doctorow was born in Canada in 1971.  He now lives in London with his wife, Alice Taylor, and their daughter Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow.

Doctorow, C. (2010, February 3). Cory Doctorow's Craphound.com. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://craphound.com/bio.php

Genre

Science Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Government Study, especially U.S. Constitution.

Book Talking Ideas

Do you feel safe?  Discuss:  Growing up after 9/11, do you feel threatened by terrorists?  Do you feel like your privacy is respected by our government, by your school?

Reading Level

13 and up.

Challenge Issues

Anti-government, anti-authority.

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Assigned.