Foot: Little Brother

I finished this book a couple of days ago, just hadn't found the time to blog about it yet. I really liked Little Brother. I thought the concept of the book was pretty fresh; not over played like a lot of the novels we see today. I'll admit that a lot of the technological sections went over my head and a lot of them, while relevant to what was going on, didn't really further the plot, so I could have done without them. Also, as I said, I really did like the book, but at the same time, the longer I read it (for more than an hour or so at a time) I found it harder and harder to concentrate and would have to re-read. Maybe it was just me, but I think the book works in little increments at a time.

While the book is fiction, the way Doctorow wrote made the book seem like it was true, or at least something that could become true, like The Handmaid's Tale. We are all aware that there are a ton of ways the government and other factors like that can spy on us, if they choose to, and this book brings that fear to life. Because the plot does involve so much technology (heck, that's the main point of the story), this is a great book to use in multi-modal classrooms. Marcus discusses a lot of different types of technology, from movies to books to video games and the like, which in turn introduces these technologies to students. I also think this book would be able to interest a lot of reluctant readers. Besides the bits about technology, the reading doesn't get that involved; it's pretty quick and easy to read. I think a lot of boys would be interested in it because the narrator is a boy, and the book, as I've mentioned, includes stuff like video games. Not to say girls wouldn't be interested in the book, but, generally I think, boys would be more interested.

I would definitely try to use this in my classroom if I could, probably as a choice reading or something like that. I don't know if it's something I would spend a lot of time on, but I might include it as a part of a longer unit or something.