Snoop

An interesting story about the power of technology, Snoop by Gordon Korman will have readers thinking about the answers to some thought provoking questions.

Carter, to be quite frank, is addicted to technology, specifically his phone. It caused him to get into an accident that ended with both of his legs broken, forcing him to be stuck at home all day everyday doing online learning. When the boredom becomes unmanageable, he turns to snooping on the town through the public access live camera feeds which then turns into hacking private cameras just to stay on top of the goings on in town. This behaviour leads to some interesting discoveries and devastating consequences for Carter.

Snoop is a super fun read and a really unique concept for a story. With technology becoming more ubiquitous, the ideas in the story, Carter hacking into private security cameras and “borrowing” his mom’s drone for surveillance, are more relevant now. The story poses some excellent questions about the importance of video surveillance and how it can be used for good as well as bad. Read in a classroom setting, the themes in the book can lead to some lively and interesting discussions about privacy.

The Bee and I loved the animal protection storyline and the focus on endangered animals. While Carter is snooping on his classmates and neighbours he sees what looks like endangered animals but when he calls the police to make a report, suddenly he becomes the boy who cried wolf. There is so much frustration built into the story and suspense that keeps things moving along at light speed. There is also a lot of conflict and Carter gets into pretty big trouble with his classmates and peers. There is a lot of conflict resolution that happens in the story, providing really great examples of what it is like to be a middle schooler.