Little Brother

      I found Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother to be a particularly inspiring book for young adult readers. It’s the kind of “anti-establishment” type of book that I read when I was younger without such a huge amount of negativity. The protagonists are a band of friends that set out not to topple society as in some other books, but to do their best in an effort to (as they see it) save society.

     The text goes a long way to make computer skills seem like something that most any young person can master, and should, for their own good if nothing else. It uses the lure of popularity and power over adults to bring the reader in and expose them to what they can be capable of doing. The common antagonist of “The Grown-ups” or “The Establishment” between the reader and the heroes of the story is appealing as well.

     The book is well-written and an easy read for younger readers, and would go over well in a classroom, as many readers would get hooked into it, perhaps without really even realizing that they were being asked to think about some classic social issues with a technological twist.