Plot Summary: Marcus is used to evading the prying eyes of big brother - at school and at home. He's active on the Xnet and built a laptop from the mother board up to avoid the school tracking that comes with the free laptop that the school issues. He and his friends love playing the game Harajuku Fun Madness together. One day, they skip school to track down the latest clue in their favorite game and are in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Bay Bridge is destroyed by terrorists. When Marcus and his friends attempt to find help they're picked up by agents for the Department of homeland security and taken into custody. No matter what they say they can't convince these agents that they're innocent and when they're eventually released their every moves are tracked. Marcus can't believe what he's seen, and the fact that his own government would sanction it. Spurred into action because of these events, and the continued disappearance of his best friend, Marcus decides it's time to take action.
Critical Evaluation: Cory Doctorow has created a modern masterpiece in this amazing novel. Readers will start to look over their shoulder for the prying eyes of big brother and they'll never look at formerly innocuous tracking devices like FasTrak and Subway fast passes again. The scary part of this novel is all of the things that are already happening from Doctorow's list of doomsday events and combined with the escalating state of affairs with terrorism and government tracking a la the USA PATRIOT Act, even the most pro-government among us will start to wonder just who's watching. Doctorow makes a name for himself that he won't soon live down, and all eyes will be on his new works. No matter how scary it is to make it through this novel, it's even harder to put down and the ideas outlined here will stay with you long after you stop reading your freely downloaded version of the book.
Reader's Annotation: Marcus is used to evading the prying eyes of big brother. But when his hometown is attacked by terrorists everything changes, and Marcus has to decide what's really important .
About the Author: Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, an activist, journalist and a blogger. He's the co-author of the http://www.boingboing.net/, a popular weblog. He's a pioneer in the field of copyright and intellectual freedom and he releases all of his fiction titles simultaneously for free download on his personal website.
He's the co-founder of the open source software program OpenCola and he and his wife live in London with their young daughter. He's originally from Toronto.
Information retreived from craphound.com
Genre: Science Fiction
Curriculum Ties: Civics
Booktalking Ideas: What surveillance do you see that's effective, what's not working?
Reading Level: 11+
Interest Age: 14+
Challenge Issues: Challenges to government surveillance,
Challenge Response: Using Doctorow's own blogs and resources provided would be a good first step to talking about the book with a challenger
Why is This Included: A game changer in science fiction, this book will have teens talking and thinking.
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