Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow is an activist, teacher, public speaker, and technology expert. He is a co-editor of BoingBoing.net, one of the most popular blogs in the world and recipient of more than three million unique visitors per month, and a columnist for publications ranging from Information Week to The Guardian.
Most recently a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, Doctorow served as a Canadian Fulbright Chair in Public Diplomacy and also serves on a number of boards of directors and advisory boards, including those of the Participatory Culture Foundations, the Open Rights Group, the MetaBrainz Foundation, Technorati, Inc., Onion Networks, and others. He also served as Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation [EFF] for over four years, where he was a delegate to treaty negotiations at the United Nations in Geneva.
Doctorow has won the Locus Award three times, been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula, won the Campbell Award, and was named one of the Top 25 Web Celebrities by Forbes magazine for the past two consecutive years, as well as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He also received the Pioneer Award for significant contributions to online freedom from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is frequently invited to speak at colleges and corporations across the country.
Cory's novels include Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, and Eastern Standard Tribe, as well as two short story collections. Cory’s written and online work has been referenced by media outlets from CBS television show “Criminal Minds” to the “The Colbert Report.”
Born in Toronto, Canada, Cory currently lives in London. His parents both worked in education, his mom in early childhood education and his dad as a math and computer science teacher.
Little Brother is his first Young Adult novel and it deals with issues of security, civil rights, censorship, and technology—but it is also an adventure story with smart teenage protagonists. The author hopes that you’ll use technology to change the world.
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Contributor: Tor Teen
Reviews
Little Brother
Cory Doctorow
Marcus believes it is another typical day in his life as a student at Cesar Chavez High School in San Francisco: outsmarting the school’s computer systems; stumping the gait-recognition security cameras; evading the class bully by corrupting his cell phone with thousands of spam text messages; and escaping the confines of his classes to play Harajuku Fun Madness, an Alternate Reality Game. The game turns deadly when Marcus and his friends are caught up in the chaos of a terrorist attack, taken prisoner by the Department of Homeland Security, and interrogated for days. When he is finally released, he finds his city has been taken over by security, with everyone being monitored for suspicious activity. Determined to hold on to his civil liberties and fight back against the DHS, Marcus develops an underground Internet, and soon XNetters everywhere are uniting to protest the government’s invasive spying on anyone whose ideology differs from theirs. What freedoms are people willing to sacrifice in exchange for the elusive feeling of “being safe”? While this futuristic techno-thriller explores timely and critically important themes such as privacy, the Bill of Rights, the role of government, and the imperfect nature of security systems, at its heart it is a classic adventure story about the power of the people to challenge authority and one teen’s refusal to give up his rights without a fight. A sure hit with technophiles and politically-aware teens as well as those who question authority (which means almost all teens), this smartly written novel has the potential to launch powerful classroom discussions and change the way young people think about government. It should motivate all readers to take a more active role in voting and governmental accountability, while also seriously analyzing their own views about civil liberties. 2008, Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, Ages 14 up, $17.95. Reviewer: Keri Collins Lewis (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1985-2
ISBN: 0-7653-1985-3
Added 05/29/08
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