If you are the kind of person who thinks the United States has acted appropriately and responsibly in the wake of the September 11tth attacks, that it has not unreasonably infringed on the civil liberties of its citizens as well as the citizens of other countries, that if we just keep our heads down and be good, the U.S. government will protect us from terrorists, and that the innocent have nothing to fear, do not read this book. You are too old to read this book, and even though you can still read Orwell, you're probably going to miss the point anyway.

The rest of you, the freaks, the geeks, the mischief-makers and risk-takers, the weird kids, the believers and the cynics, the readers and the writers, come closer. Listen.

is about what happens next.

In the wake of a devastating terrorist attack on San Francisco, the Department of Homeland Security detains hundreds of Americans, interrogating and intimidating them. Unfortunately for the DHS, one of the people they seize is Marcus Yallow, a seventeen year old kid who's a little too smart (and bored) for his own good. Marcus should be a familiar character to readers: he takes things apart, builds new things in his bedroom, and he lives another life online as "w1n5t0n" (an Orwellian nod). After detaining Marcus and his friends for days, the DHS lets him go. That was their second mistake. Soon Marcus finds himself as the leader of a new online movement to thwart the government's draconian civil rights crackdown. His friends are terrified, his father is happy that the government is trying to keep them safe, and Marcus is rapidly learning that "revolutionary" is often synonymous with "martyr.

This is a well-paced young adult novel, with a sympathetic protagonist, and most readers in the intended audience will be able to identify with him: a little too smart, a little too weird, and more than a little fed up with being told about things happening to them "for their own good." The story is set in the immediate future, with very near-future tech like a new Xbox system; the bibliography provides a good background for the tech that sounds like near-future but is actually here. There's even a good argument for the Wikipedia references in the text itself. Eerily prescient in hindsight: a scene that could have been pulled straight from the Anonymous protests of Scientology earlier this year. The details make this book very real-to-life and current. Marcus could be any kid you know right now, which makes the presence of the monsters (technically humans, but only just) that much more frightening. The down side is that the book is going to be dated pretty quickly, so read it sooner rather than later to enjoy the full flavor.

Adults will enjoy Little Brother, especially adults who hang out on websites like ours, and only one or two details stand out as "teen lit" versus "adult lit," so pick up a copy for your favorite teenager and yourself at the same time. Ask yourself how far you'd go if you saw your liberties being ripped away, and what would be the thing that pushed you into action. Would you go to the newspapers with your story? Would you set up a hidden internet inside the real one to coordinate with your friends? Or would you go to an illegal concert and dance in opposition to the end of the world?