Little Brother

Bibliographic Information: Doctorow, C. (2008). Little brother. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.

Plot Summary:  Little Brother tells the story of Marcus Yallow, a seventeen-year old boy who enjoys hacking, building electronic devices, and live action role-playing games.  He leads a group with three other friends, Darryl, Vanessa (Van), and Jolu (Jose Luis).  One day, the four friends skipped school to play in a game called Harajuku fun madness- a game involving clue finding, and while on their search, terrorists bomb the Bay Bridge and the underlying subway, killing around four thousand victims.  In the ensuing chaos, the Marcus and his friends are stopped by the Department of Homeland Security, taken into custody, accused of being terrorists, and tortured.  When the DHS decides to let Marcus go, they threaten him to keep silent, of suffer much worse.  At first, Marcus follows orders, but after discovering a bug in his made-from-scrap laptop, his inner-rebel begins to wake.  The DHS has taken over San Francisco by eliminating nearly all means of privacy.  This doesn’t sit well with Marcus, so he decides to take on the DHS and expose them as a threat to the United States of America.  

Critical Evaluation:  Perhaps the biggest theme in Little Brother is that of the right to privacy.  In the novel, the characters were surrounded by technologies marketed as safety measures, but in reality infringed on their freedoms.  Gait recognition cameras at Marcus’ school monitored who was going where, transportation passes used on toll roads recorded where and when you traveled, and internet activity was tracked.  Anyone posing to be a threat to the community (read-anyone who veered from their every-day activities) were called into question by the DHS.  This hyper-vigilance doesn’t really make anyone feel safe, as argued by Marcus, but it really creates more fear among those being watched.  What Doctorow is doing through this novel is opening up a discussion about the measures our government takes in the name of security.  How many of our daily activities are watched by “Big Brother?”  Are we really as free as we think we are?  Marcus’ recitation of the preamble of the Constitution motivates him to continue fighting against the DHS to preserve his life, liberty, and his pursuit of happiness.  

Reader’s Annotation: Wherever you go, whatever you do, Big Brother is watching.  

Information about the author: Cory Doctorow is a science fiction writer who also is an advocate for technology.  He actively participates in the writing world as a contributor to the NY Times, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, Wired, and more.  Doctorow used to be the Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  

    Doctorow’s decision to make Little Brother freely accessible on the Internet was made to share the book’s message about privacy rights.  He encourages his readers to share to promote the work, and as a result, his sales increase (Doctorow, 2013).  

Genre: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction

Curriculum Ties: English (Language Arts), Government, Technology class.

Booktalking ideas (one or two):

1. Describe the different security technologies used by the government in the novel.

2. Marcus’ perspective.

Reading level/Interest age: 15+

Challenge Issues: This book contains violence, rebellion, references to sex, and some language.

To defend challenged material I would:

1.    Read/watch/listen to the material to become familiar with the content.

2.    Familiarize myself with the Arizona Common Core curriculum standards http://www.azed.gov/azcommoncore/teacher/ to defend how the material can support the learning of these standards.

3.    Refer to the Library Bill of Rights: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

4.    Refer to the collection policy of my library.

5.    Collect reviews from staff/students/patrons who have used the material

Why I included this book: I chose this novel for my collection because of the potential for classroom and book club discussions about privacy.  This story of Marcus Yallow shows readers what can happen if government agencies are given too much power.  Hopefully after reading this book, young adults will think more critically about their rights.  

References:

Doctorow, C. (2013, April 10). About Cory Doctorow. Craphound.com. Retrieve 6 May 2013

    from http://craphound.com/bio.php.