Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Hello All!

I started my Young Adult Literature reading with a bang. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is a 2008 title that has had excellent reviews, and I agree with them. This was a very good book about how teens communicate, their knowledge of how many of them can make the internet work for them, terrorism, and government reaction to it, all told from a 17-year-old's point of view. It starts with a group of teens who are out role-playing via a wireless connection when a terrorist attack occurs in San Francisco. Marcus, our hero, is arrested as a possible terrorist, because of first being in the wrong place at the wrong time, then because of his knowledge of computers, the internet and other media he uses on a daily basis. After some interrogation, he is released into a different San Franciso, one that is close to being a police state, run by the Department of Homeland Security. Marcus knows his Constitution, and decides to take on the DHS, and quite an adventure is the result.

I was surprised to enjoy a book so much by an author whose work I had not previously liked. I read Eastern Standard Tribe a few years ago, and I was disappointed with that title. Maybe one should not judge an author by one book :)? And the only quibble I had with this book was the occasional technical explanations, but I do think they were necessary to the book.

I found this to be a hero's journey, and a journey I was very happy to take.

Happy Reading!
Patti

1 comment:

pattinase (abbott) said...

I may have already asked you for this, but I wonder if you might send me a digital picture of you reading for my blog. I should have kept a list of who I asked. If you hate this sort of thing, don't think twice.