Little Brother

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow

Free download version, 2008

Available at:  http://craphound.com/littlebrother/Cory_Doctorow_-_Little_Brother.pdf

Plot -Marcus Yallow is a kid who likes to take things apart and put them back together in order to understand them, and most of all he likes to be free to do so.  He lives in San Francisco in a time that looks much like today's, but with another layer (or at least a more obvious one) of technological surveillance added.  Marcus spends as much time as possible working ways around this over-arching, watchful eye, with a typical teenager's mix of enthusiasm, determination, and ironic humor.  That is, until things get very serious and so does he.  Marcus, who goes by the code name w1n5t0n in the digital world, and his friends Jolu, Van, and Darryl skip school one day to play their favorite Alternate Reality Game, Harajuku Fun Madness, that involves real life clues distributed all around the city.  That's when things get ugly--a terrorist attack blows up the Bay Bridge, Marcus and his friends are abducted by the Department of Homeland Security and ruthlessly tortured for information.  After a number of days, he, Jolu, and Van are let go, but the the DHS keeps Darryl, Marcus's best friend.  Of course the DHS threatens the three who leave with merciless punishment if they reveal what happened to them, and Marcus, with a combination of victim's shame and intelligent stealth, makes his friends promise to keep it a secret.  They begin their own resistance war, using technological hacks to undo DHS's embedded power, and attract a huge, dispersed team of teens to join them.  Along the way, though, Marcus's family, his father in particular, has become spooked by the attack and clings to DHS's promises of safety.  Marcus must rescue Darryl, redeem (or establish) his own and his friends' dignity as free individuals, and negotiate the increasingly fraught waters of his family life.

Critical Evaluation - This book is a whole lot of fun to read.  Not that the content is fun at all times by any means, but its greatest strength is the fast-paced, emotionally charged story of how Marcus handles the government that handles him and his friends.  Detailed technical explications not only serve to make the story all the more plausible, and therefore more gripping, but also give the reader a chance to clearly see the wizard behind the curtain, one of the novel's key themes.  The only weakness to the story lies in its all-too-neatly tied-up ending.  Would our Marcus/w1n5ton/M1k3y really start believing in the power of the vote when he's seen the morass of corruption and paranoia that is his government?  More than anything, the novel's characters and action, especially the ultimately evil DHS, read like a graphic novel--written in broad strokes with high emotional impact.  Doctorow writes on his website that he wrote the book in a "fury" lasting only a few months.  I might have suggested that he take the time to collaborate with a graphic artist sensitive enough to portray the story successfully. 

Reader's annotation -Marcus doesn't like being watched all the time from within the technology he uses, and he won't just stand around when the government takes over his city in the wake of a terrorist attack.  Marcus fights back for all he's worth.

Information about the author - Doctorow is a fast-talking, fast-thinking, highly intelligent writer and technophile.  He is as much an educator through his writing as he is a straight-ahead story-teller.  He believes firmly and actively in a 21st century model for creative developments--hinging on the rights of all to, first, be participants in a collective creative process, and, second, to have access to those collective efforts freely and openly.  Consequently, according to his website and to interviews, he publishes his books with a Creative Commons license, wherein readers can download the text for free, add to it, mix it with their own or others' work, and send it back to him.  He also published Little Brother as a hardback book and claims that the free download actually boosts his sales, though that seems of lesser importance to him than a cooperative, collaborative creative process model.  Finally, he is exceptionally wary of copyright laws and restrictions, as he argues fervently that they primarily benefit not the artist or even the publisher, who both put in immense time and money into creating the work, but instead the distributor, who simply controls the electronic and print channels through which the work reaches its audiences.
Genre - Young Adult lit.
Curriculum Ties - Social Studies, involving questions of freedom, government control, government responsibility for safety, terrorism.  Also, upper level Ethics classes discussing law and freedom, personal vs. communal rights and control.  And of course Computer Studies.
Booktalk ideas - 

1.  Marcus is a not-too-unusual computer hacking teenager with a penchant for getting out from under the watchful eye of...who ever's watching him.  When he and his friends get dragged in to the government's net of suspicion after a terrorist attack, Marcus, his friends, and a vast loosely connected vigilante army are out for a whole lot more than some fun.  They must rescue their friend, Marcus's family, and the city of San Francisco from one arm or another of the Department of Homeland Security's monstrous reach into every citizen's life.
2. Read the section on page 16 where the kids are first taken after the terrorist attack.  Begin with "...the first vehicle that screamed past..." and end with "My head rang like a gong."

Reading level -13+.  This is my rating, based on the technological explanations and violence, I would not rate it much lower unless the child was especially used to distopian stories and was a techno-geek.  The book is easily entertaining to adults as well.

Challenge issues - Anti-government stance, violence

Challenge defense ideas:

• Librarian must read the book carefully and include it as a resource intended for older teens.
• Librarian greets students and regularly discusses their reading choices; she provides individualized, age-appropriate guidance in book choice.
• Explain the ways in which the librarian accompanies and guides younger students looking for books, and knows students well as individuals.

Why I included this book - The book is a whirlwind of a story, entertaining to those interested in hack technology, steampunk, or just a great adventure story of revenge and heroism on the part of a bunch of self-sufficient teenagers.  Besides that, though, it is a fantastic call to awareness, and/or action.  As noted above, it could certainly be used in classes, especially as a companion piece to Orwell's 1984.  It would be controversial and require careful handling by teachers if used in class.  Otherwise, it would make a wonderful reading club pick for young adults.