Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer


I just finished this book and I loved it!! A great science fiction read about the land of Opium...a country that lies between the United States and Mexico. El Patron is the ruler of this land (a very powerful drug lord). His clone, young Matt was harvested and put in the womb of a cow until his birth, and is treated as an animal and not as a human by the Alacran family. Only Maria, a friend of the family, befriends Matt, and helps him to believe in himself. The story follows Matt as a child at the young age of 6 up to 14, and how he copes with being a clone and how he comes to find out what El Patron's actual purpose in life is for Matt. He has to find a way to escape El Patron and the terror of what may happen to him if he doesn't.


This was a fascinating book, and I normally don't seek out or read science fiction very often, but I was very entranced while reading this and couldn't put it down. There is quite a bit more to the book, but I don't want to give it away. I figured out this a ways through the book, but don't want to ruin it for anyone else. I would highly recommend this book, especially for grades 8 and up.


This book won the Newbery Honor, the National Book Award, the Michael L. Printz Award Honor book, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for 2003.