Little Brother
by Cory Doctorow
Book of the Week: 8 February 2015

Marcus Yallow, a 17 year-old San Franciscan high school student and hacker, is used to getting into trouble because he ‘goes through school firewalls like wet kleenex’. Then, on the day of an attack on the Oakland Bay Bridge, he and his friends are detained on suspicion of being terrorists and his definition of being in trouble ramps up several notches. Marcus is eventually released but is so angry and shaken at the way in which his civil rights have been violated that he starts a teenage rebellion against the Department of Homeland Security.

This is a powerful polemic about the rights of citizens, government surveillance and the power of the internet with a very interesting bibliography about hacking and freedom of information. Some readers may find this controversial or irresponsible and some aspects of the plot make it a book more suitable for older readers.
The author has a website which allows anyone to read the book for free.
The Common Sense Media website has a guide for parents or for anyone who wants to check out the suitability of games, books and films.It has an entry for ‘Little Brother’. However, it is American and British media and material from other countries is under-represented.
Common Sense Media
If you enjoy books like ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ by George Orwell or ‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley, you may enjoy ‘Little Brother’ and its follow-up, ‘Homeland’.