Little Brother
Doctorow, Cory
ISBN-13 9780765319852
ISBN-10 0765319853
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, 2008
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Reading Level: 900 Lexile
Interest Age: 9th-12th grade
Reader's Annotation:
Marcus thinks he has got the keys to hack all the computers he needs. One day he is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets whisked away by the Department of Homeland Security. Will he survive?
Plot Summary:
Marcus sees computers as a puzzle to continually solve. He uses a screen name of "w1n5t0n" in his world of hacking to conceal his identity. Instead of text books, each student was assigned a net book with e-books loaded on them. This way, the students can do their work and read the books at the same time. Marcus hacked his school book so he could talk with his friends during class. One day, he and his friends were caught in the middle of a terrorist attack and swept up by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The children were interrogated and coerced by the DHS for information they did not have.
When home, the DHS watches all that Marcus does. He has to change his online identity and use a different form of hacking. He had to use a network through his Xbox called the Xnet. When he is threatened to be thrown in jail, Marcus needs to find some allies against the United States of America. Can he do it? Will he have to pay for the laws he broke?
Critical Evaluation:
Marcus is a digital native. who has used this to his advantage. Cory Doctorow has figured out how to capture this persona well in his book. Because he is a science fiction author, he is well versed on the content he writes about. This story holds the reader's attention throughout the entire book. There and many different things going on at once and the reader is left to piece together what will become of Marcus and his friends. There is a lot of technical jargon in this book. For the most part, this jargon is explained in detail but there are parts to this story that can be confusing to a nontechnical reader. This jargon enhances the story and makes it more believable that Marcus could have done what the DHS thinks, but there is a line that is crossed sometimes to explaining too much of the technology. Even though today's teens are digital natives, they do not all know how the internet and computers work from the inside out.
About the Author:
Cory Doctorow has written eight novels and three nonfiction books. He has a website he manages himself at www.craphound.com and a blog he is co-editor of called Boing Boing. Doctorow also writes for The Guardian, the New York Times, Publishers Weekly and Wired. His books have won many awards and he is a self proclaimed technology activist.
Doctorow's novels have been translated into many languages and he releases them in print as well as on the internet under Creative Commons licenses. Because he is a technology advocate, he wants his writing to be accessed through technology. Many of his books include technology in one way or another.
www.craphound.com
Curriculum Ties:
The role of technology in today's society.
Intellectual freedom.
Role of government in technology.
Terrorism.
Marcus sees computers as a puzzle to continually solve. He uses a screen name of "w1n5t0n" in his world of hacking to conceal his identity. Instead of text books, each student was assigned a net book with e-books loaded on them. This way, the students can do their work and read the books at the same time. Marcus hacked his school book so he could talk with his friends during class. One day, he and his friends were caught in the middle of a terrorist attack and swept up by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The children were interrogated and coerced by the DHS for information they did not have.
When home, the DHS watches all that Marcus does. He has to change his online identity and use a different form of hacking. He had to use a network through his Xbox called the Xnet. When he is threatened to be thrown in jail, Marcus needs to find some allies against the United States of America. Can he do it? Will he have to pay for the laws he broke?
Critical Evaluation:
Marcus is a digital native. who has used this to his advantage. Cory Doctorow has figured out how to capture this persona well in his book. Because he is a science fiction author, he is well versed on the content he writes about. This story holds the reader's attention throughout the entire book. There and many different things going on at once and the reader is left to piece together what will become of Marcus and his friends. There is a lot of technical jargon in this book. For the most part, this jargon is explained in detail but there are parts to this story that can be confusing to a nontechnical reader. This jargon enhances the story and makes it more believable that Marcus could have done what the DHS thinks, but there is a line that is crossed sometimes to explaining too much of the technology. Even though today's teens are digital natives, they do not all know how the internet and computers work from the inside out.
About the Author:
Cory Doctorow has written eight novels and three nonfiction books. He has a website he manages himself at www.craphound.com and a blog he is co-editor of called Boing Boing. Doctorow also writes for The Guardian, the New York Times, Publishers Weekly and Wired. His books have won many awards and he is a self proclaimed technology activist.
Doctorow's novels have been translated into many languages and he releases them in print as well as on the internet under Creative Commons licenses. Because he is a technology advocate, he wants his writing to be accessed through technology. Many of his books include technology in one way or another.
www.craphound.com
The role of technology in today's society.
Intellectual freedom.
Role of government in technology.
Terrorism.
Book Talking:
Intellectual freedom and technology- censorship.
Challenging Issues:
If this book were to be challenged, I would go through the selection process with the challenger as well as explain the rationale for the book. There are many good qualities in this book that could be reason to have it in a collection.
Why Read this Book:
This book is very relevant to today and what teens are facing. This will appeal to someone interested in technology, but also those interested in individual freedoms. Doctorow brings many aspects of the internet and who has access to information. I would recommend this book because it makes the reader think about their electronic footprint.
Intellectual freedom and technology- censorship.
Challenging Issues:
If this book were to be challenged, I would go through the selection process with the challenger as well as explain the rationale for the book. There are many good qualities in this book that could be reason to have it in a collection.
Why Read this Book:
This book is very relevant to today and what teens are facing. This will appeal to someone interested in technology, but also those interested in individual freedoms. Doctorow brings many aspects of the internet and who has access to information. I would recommend this book because it makes the reader think about their electronic footprint.
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