Pirate Cinema

August 27, 2012
Doctorow (Little Brother; For the Win) returns with another down-and-dirty tale of technological guerrilla warfare. Set in a near-future England where Big Entertain-ment is pressuring Parliament into criminalizing illicit downloading and handing out jail sentences to those who do it, the novel concerns 16-year-old Trent McCauley who obsessively samples old films to create new works of art. This gets his entire family barred from the Web for a year, rendering his parents virtually unemployable and derailing his sister's education. Running away to London, Trent falls in with a group of young, high-tech squatters and anarchists who begin a David vs. Goliath war against the establishment, hoping to free the Net for creative use by the common people. Doctorow, a noted free Internet advocate (and PW columnist), handles his topic with great passion, creating engaging and believably geeky characters who share his fervor for both the Web and the new forms of art and communication it has made possible. Though the story can be talky and didactic, fans of the author's earlier work will find it a winner. Ages 13âup. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency.

September 15, 2012
The near future's oppressive copyright laws criminalize creativity in the name of protecting it. Trent McCauley has an irrepressible drive to create, carefully splicing bits and pieces of movies together into entirely new films. However, he gets his footage through illegal downloading, and when he's caught, his family loses their Internet for a year, nearly ruining them. His mother can't get her benefits, his father loses his job, and his academic sister is cut off from her homework, all in the name of miniscule amounts of corporate profit. Guilt-stricken, Trent runs away to London, where he's taken under the wing of streetwise Jem Dodger, learning Dumpster diving, squatting and panhandling. After Trent builds a family of fellow outcast kids, his creative urge leads him into an underground subculture of pirate-created movies in makeshift venues. There, he meets 26 and creates the persona Cecil B. DeVil. Pulled by 26 into the politics of copyright and the lobbyist money that purchases laws, Cecil becomes a creative figurehead for reform against escalating laws that aggressively jail kids. Doctorow (For the Win, 2010, etc.) isn't subtle with his stances; characters often seem to be giving campaign speeches. Fortunately, those rich characters are well-rounded enough and the laws close enough to already proposed measures that the agenda detracts minimally from the novel's success as a story. For computer-savvy kids who like to think. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

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Starred review from October 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Trent McCauley, 16, makes films. The problem is that his films are composed of bits and pieces of other copyrighted material. He's a thief of intellectual property and in this near-future Great Britain, the consequences for this sort of action are severe. He leaves home for London after his online piracy has caused his entire family to lose their vital Internet connection for a year. He soon meets Jem, who shows him the ropes of being homeless, and in no time they are sharing a posh flop with Trent's new mates. Back online, he makes films that are a smash hit on the underground scene where he rechristens himself "Cecil B. DeVil." He falls in love with beautiful and brilliant 26, who opens his eyes to the political ramifications of his filmmaking. Soon Cecil and his entire crew are in a political and artistic fight to dismantle legislation criminalizing their type of creativity, legislation written by film studios and passed by the studios' Parliament lackeys. This amazing book combines young love, terrific humor, great British slang, and crazy parties with astute commentary on intellectual property and emerging modes of creativity. Doctorow's characters are well-defined individuals, all with some facet, quirk, or activity to give them color. Language-arts and civics teachers could co-teach the heck out of this novel, and debaters will find a goldmine of monologues. It's funny, thought-provoking, and glorious.-Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2012
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Incorporating all the urgency of Little Brother (2008) and the gravity of For the Win (2010), Doctorow's series starter is his most cogent, energizing call to arms to date, an old-fashioned (but forward-thinking) counterculture rabble-rouser that will have dissidents of all ages dying to stick it to the Man. In Doctorow's favorite settingthe all-too-near futureTrent, 16, aka Cecil B. DeVil, likes to take copyrighted movie footage and through some truly epic mousing remix it to startling new effect. It's illegal, of course, and after his editing gets his family's Internet access revoked to calamitous results, Trent escapes to London, where he joins up with the Oliver Twistlike Jammie Dodgers, a mischievous gang of life hackers who have turned squatting into an art. Meanwhile, the Theft of Intellectual Property Bill passes, leading to minors being thrown into prison for copyright theft and spurring Trent and his pals to launch a series of secret film screenings that become an underground sensation. It's generally accepted that fussing with computers is a narrative buzzkill, yet Doctorow's unrivaled verisimilitude makes every click as exciting as a band of underdog warriors storming a castle. It's not exactly Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book (1971), but with its delirious insights into everything from street art to urban exploring to dumpster diving to experimental cinema, it feels damn close. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Doctorow, coeditor of the insanely popular Boing Boing blog, has a massive loyal following, and all of themteen and adult alikewill be clamoring for this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)