On November 28, 2012 I did a blog post recommending that people of all ages read Little Brother, from tinkerers to educators and technophobes to techsperts. Little Brother is classified as Young Adult or Juvenile fiction, but the reality is interwoven throughout the story and many people can relate to the characters in the book, the tech used, and the credible resources in the afterwords, and the bibliography. It was a quick and easy read but I love tech, tinkering, learning from others the diverse things that can be done while integrating technology, good, bad, or ugly.
From companies making ginormous amounts of $$$ from people with student loans packaged as bonds, quad copters, cold brew coffee, Burning Man, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Noisebridge, Tor, Wikipedia, Google, Maker Faire, supporting an Independent political contender, techno-paranoia from webcams, UAVs, 3D printers, People's Mic Checks, leaked documents...there is something for all readers.
I looked forward to Homeland being released, wanted to participate in one of many stops on Cory Doctorow's book tour for Homeland. Then life happens. Maybe on his next book tour?
If you read Little Brother, then you need to read Homeland. Then we wait on Cory to publish the follow on book or for someone to turn it into a movie. There were times when I was reading this book, I said, "Hey I am connected to this issue, that tech, him, her through social media and news feeds".
Probably the section that was like someone talking from the grave is the Afterword by Aaron Swartz. Cory Doctorow's boingboing.net post, RIP Aaron Swartz began before Homeland was officially released. The response from Aaron to Cory is used in the book, so if you read the blog post before reading Homeland you could reflect on the story and depending on your memory recall say, "Hey I remember this from somewhere" or just chalk it up to a deja vu moment.
Jacob Appelbaum closes his afterword with, "It's up to you now-go create something beautiful and help others to do the same. Happy hacking,"
And as with Little Brother, the bibliography is full of credible resources. From the secrets to using Wikipedia (sources and talk) to sites like Code Academy, Tor Project, CyanogenMod, Electronic Frontier Foundations (US & Canada), Open Rights Group (UK), Creative Freedom (New Zealand), Creative Commons, Pirate Party, and more. Of course, as Cory states, "There's plenty more-more than would ever fit between the covers of a book" so a visit to boingboing.net keeps you up to date with Cory's every day writings.
Cory...we look forward to the follow on projects to Little Brother and Homeland.
I came across Little Brother while consolidating recommended reading lists from leaders. After taking a break from required reading for school, Little Brother seemed interesting for a few reasons listed below.
Cory Doctorow's article Security Literacy: teaching kids to think critically about security from the May 2008 Tor/Forge Newsletter.
Cory's blog post, June 2012 Students assigned to cheat on exam use doctored Little Brother cover and many other methods featuring James Caroland, US Navy/US Cyber Command and Greg Conti, West Point.
Tracey Hughes shares course materials she developed with her Grade 10 students in Peterborough, Ontario to remix, adapt, and reuse. Cory's post: Remixable Grade 10 course materials for Little Brother.
You can read about Little Brother on Cory Doctorow's site or Wikipedia. Or the many book reviews published over the last four years.
You can donate the book to educators and librarians in the United States, Canada, Indonesia, Kosovo, Taiwan, United Kingdom and choose to be an acknowledged as a public donor or added to the anonymous count.
You can download Little Brother at no cost based on Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).
While Little Brother is categorized as Juvenile Fiction or Young Adults (YA), people of all ages can learn from the story, which is interwoven with real issues, real sites, and credible resources.
Whether you are a tinkerer or learning about today's students, your children, and/or grandchildren to the credibility offered in the Afterwords by Bruce Schneier and Andrew "bunnie" Huang and the Bibliography with references to techno-countercultural writings to websites such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Pirate party and Cryptome there is something everyone can connect with in Little Brother.
Little Brother was adapted and directed by Josh Costello into a play/stage version in San Francisco, CA. Josh made a few changes because novels and plays are different. Little Brother is supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Custom Made family of donors.
If you are gifting for your avid reader or your favorite library, Little Brother should be on your list. Homeland, the follow on to Little Brother will be released February 5, 2013. You can read an excerpt from Homeland.
Cory Doctorow Bio
Have you read Little Brother? Gifted the digital or printed book? Received it as a gift? Did you see the play? What do you think?
