The Barcode Tattoo

Weyn, S. (2004). The Barcode Tattoo. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc. Point Thriller imprint.

•Plot Summary
Kayla is on the verge of her seventeenth birthday when her world falls apart. Already advised that despite her artistic talent she will not be eligible for scholarships due to sub par grades in her computer classes, she is devastated when her father commits suicide for unknown reasons related to the tattoo almost everyone in the U.S. over the age of seventeen has begun to wear, tattoos that contain information about everything from blood type to life history. Her mother becomes an alcoholic drug user, but will not tell Kayla what she knows, not even after Kayla finds her mother reading the FBI file on her father. The file reports more than just bank information and salary details now as well, it also contains information about a person's genetic code, information that world technology leader Global-1 is using in order to weed out Undesireables. Suddenly, only those with the right genetic information can advance in their jobs, and others (like Kayla's father) are fired. Global-1 has been manipulating the world food supply since 2015, but now they are also placing microchips in healthy babies, while the ones that show genetic codes given to predispositions for heart disease or mental illness (again like Kayla's father-a potential schizophrenic) are simply left to die in cold rooms or given lethal injections. As part of a group of young people trying to fight back against the barcode trend, Kayla becomes involved with charismatic Zekeal, but he is working as part of a group for Global-1, finally convinced that a rebellion will never succeed. Ultimately, Kayla flees to the Adirondack Mountains, a place she has been having visions about since she first joined with the group. Led by the psychic energy of a woman named Eutonah, Kayla and others develop their mental abilities rapidly, no longer influenced by the dulling work of Global-1's tactics or the company's strategy of disallowing further human evolution without their intervention. Together with the boy she loves, Mfumbe, Kayla at last feels enough resolve and assurance in the cause to plan a meeting in Washington, D.C. in order to overthrow the work Global-1 has done.

•Critical Evaluation
This is a heart-pounding race for time sort of novel, in which it's easy to get lost. Kayla is not a superheroine, even after developing her psychic abilities well enough to revive a dead bird, but this makes the story seem more plausible. She and her friends are young people caught in a complex series of manipulations by adults, and this novel helps revive the concept of be careful who you believe, and why.

•Reader’s Annotation
Good read for those concerned about how technology is homogenizing society as a whole, and the implications of being too easily led down a certain path.

•Information about the author
Suzanne Weyn was born in Flushing, New York, in 1955. Her father, Theodore, was a pharmacist, her mother, Jacqueline, an artist. Like Kayla, Suzanne was interested in art, but also theatre and literature all through high school and college. She graduated from Binghamton University in 1977, and became an editor of teen magazines for Starlog Press.

She has written over fifty novels for children and teens, mainly from the science fiction and fantasy genres, and has worked as an editor for Scholastic, Inc. She also teaches classes on expository and business writing for City College of New York, and NYU. She and her husband, William Gonzalez, have been married since 1986, and have two daughters.

•Genre
Science Fiction, Thriller

•Curriculum Ties
Computers, Technology, Global Commerce

•Booktalking Ideas
Dystopian novels, global takeover by corporations, loss of identity, de-civilization

•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 9-12/Ages 14-19

•Challenge Issues
N/A/

•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
I've always been interested in dystopian novels, and the concept of having to revert to a simpler lifestyle in order to avoid the "machine". When I picked up this novel, I thought it was only another sci fi thriller about the barcode, a concept discussed when I was in middle/high school, as a sort of "what if" concept. That Kayla and her friends ended up in the mountains, and regained some of what humanity might have lost or was slow in achieving due to too much tech, was just an added bonus.

Little Brother

Doctorow, C. (2008). Little Brother. New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN-10: 0765323117
ISBN-13: 9780765323118

•Plot Summary
Marcus Yallow is a fan of Harajuku Fun Madness, a Japanese game where players receive clues online, and then find valuable objects by deciphering the locations hinted at by the clues. As the novel opens, Marcus is in school, but cunningly figuring out a way to skip in order to locate the newest game destination. As he and his friends reach the site, San Francisco is hit by a terrorist attack, the Bay bridge bombed. Marcus, Vanessa, and Jolu are taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security, and interrogated until they finally answer questions to the DHS's satisfaction, and are released-if not set free, since the DHS will continue to monitor their behavior. Darryl has disappeared, Marcus begins to have trouble with his father, who believes the DHS is doing the right thing. Vanessa and Jolu back out of helping Marcus find Darryl, afraid of reprisal from the DHS, but he meets Angela (Ange). Together, the two embark on a plan to undermine the DHS, and get Darryl. Using X-Net, a fictitious wireless network supposedly unmonitored by the DHS, and an equally fictitious Nintendo XBox Universal, Marcus is able to spread his message. He is successful in having Darryl and Ange released from custody, and the DHS loses their power.

•Critical Evaluation
While Doctorow's novel does bring up critical issues, especially in light of recent events in the U.S. (PATRIOT act, Guantánamo Bay, etc), some readers may get lost in the technical jargon being used to prove that w1n5t0n (Marcus) is a techie of the first degree. The story line is sharp, and the characterizations accurate for each of the groups, but the creation of fictional devices could be confusing, even to some teens.

•Reader’s Annotation
Not recommended for reluctant readers unless they happen to be very knowledgeable about technology and gaming. One of the longer novels published for teens in recent years, this story is serious, and not the sort of one that can be read in one or two sittings.

•Information about the author


•Genre
Science Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Tech Fiction

•Curriculum Ties
Computers
Political Science
History

•Booktalking Ideas
Loss of identity, teens and computers, teens in science fiction, terrorism

•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 8-12/Ages 13-19

•Challenge Issues
Potential for trouble with parents or administrators for views on the DHS. I would point out the incidences of problems in this area that have been documented over the last few years, especially since the end of the last presidential administration.

•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
This was a novel required by the course, and it is unlikely I would have chosen to read it for any other reason. While I understood the tech language, I found it a distraction from the content of the novel, a factor I usually look at in the library or store when choosing books.

Fearless #1

Pascal, F. (2002). Fearless #1. New York, NY: Simon Pulse.
ISBN-10: 0671039415

•Plot Summary
Gaia Moore is the new girl in school, and on the surface, looks like any other teenage girl of seventeen. Unlike others her age, or indeed anyone at all, Gaia can't experience fear. Born without a gene to allow its being generation by her mind, not to mention speed and reflexes that are also well above average, she spends her free time exacting revenge on criminals that try to attack innocent people. Ed Fargo sees Gaia in the hall, and instantly falls in love, to the point where he begins following her around in his wheel chair. A few nights later, while Gaia is strolling for criminals, Ed mistakes the situation and charges in to "rescue" her. Unable to do anything about it, Gaia is forced to knock out the three criminals, and allow Ed to find out about her physical abilities, albeit not her fearlessness. Unfortunately for Gaia, the situation is about to become even more complicated when her new classmate (Heather) becomes her enemy, and Gaia fails to explain to the other girl that a new group of guys is in the park with a knife, just as Heather starts to enter it. Gaia does tell Heather's friends, who are less than a minute behind the other girl in arriving, but it's too late. Heather is attacked, ends up in ICU, and everyone thinks Gaia allowed Heather to be nearly murdered. Gaia blames herself, believing that because she mentally thought about Heather deserving to be stabbed, that it happened. Heather's boyfriend, the disturbingly handsome, intelligent, and loyal Sam, thinks so too. But Gaia and Sam have met before, the two having played chess, and both experiencing a level of magnetism neither had ever experienced before. Days later, when Gaia goes to the park to bring her chess buddy Zolov a sandwich, Sam is there. She rushes off, but soon after Sam goes in search, and comes back in time to find Zolov being attacked by some of the same guys that had attacked Gaia and Ed. Unable to help Zolov directly, Sam runs to find a pay phone for a 911 call, and Gaia finds Zolov. Seeing Sam running, she accuses him of having committed the crime, only realizing she is wrong after the real perpetrators make a reappearance. Sam and Gaia take the group on, and manage to make it out alive, but Gaia ends up in the hospital just a few rooms down from Heather's new location. Sam and Gaia have another experience like they had over the chess match, but with more sensuality involved, feeling a connection they cannot explain. The nurse enters, and explains that Sam's girlfriend is looking for him, so the two part ways. That night, one of the attackers meets with an older woman he's been meeting with for awhile, one that's been giving him instructions. Her name is Ella, and is married to George, the man Gaia's father sent her to live with. Ella quickly dispatches the inept attacker, and goes home, knowing that Gaia has been released and will be there as well. The novel ends here.

•Critical Evaluation
A clean, fast-paced novel, hard to define in terms of genre. Classified here as Science Fiction, due to the genetic manipulation factors inherent in Gaia's make-up. As a character, she is superhuman, but still possesses factors of vulnerability that make her likable.

•Reader’s Annotation
There are twenty-one books in this series. Unknown if violence, language, and sexual content increase through the series.

•Information about the author
Born in New York, 1938, Francine Pascal graduated from NYU in 1958. While she had been married once before, it was here that she met her second husband, John Pascal. Her three daughters from the previous marriage lived with the couple in Manhattan, until John's death from cancer in 1981. Francine's older daughter, Jamie, died in 2008 from liver disease. She splits her time between New York and France, and has never remarried.

Francine published her first novel in 1977, and several of her books have been made into television movies. She is probably most well known, however, for being the author of the Sweet Valley High series of novels.

•Genre
Science Fiction

•Curriculum Ties
N/A

•Booktalking Ideas
Superheroes, genetic modification

•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 9-12/Ages 14-19

•Challenge Issues
N/A

•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
Unlike most teens, I never read the Sweet Valley High novels, this one intrigued me. I liked the idea of a girl who was unable to feel fear, and was therefore fight crime.