Reccomended Read

Recommended Read
Reviewed By: Brandon Lopez
Book: The House of the Scorpion
Author: Nancy Farmer
Target Audience: The House of the Scorpion is written for kid’s ages 9-14 the book is really good and is appropriate.
Reader Rating: 5 stars
Significant Passage#: Pull out the glass!” Cried Emilia in a high scared voice. “Maria stay away!” I want to see!” yelled the little girl. Matt heard a slap and Maria’s shriek of outrage. His head was swimming. He wanted to throw up, but before he could, everything went black. P.19
Synopsis: Fields of white opium poppies stretch away over the hills, and uniformed workers bend over the rows, harvesting the juice. This is the empire of Matteo Alacran, a feudal drug lord in the country of Opium, which lies between the United States and Aztlan, formerly Mexico. Field work, or any menial tasks, are done by "eejits," humans in whose brains computer chips have been installed to insure docility. Alacran, or El Patron, has lived 140 years with the help of transplants from a series of clones, a common practice among rich men in this world. The intelligence of clones is usually destroyed at birth, but Matt, the latest of Alacran's doubles, has been spared because he belongs to El Patron. He grows up in the family's mansion, alternately caged and despised as an animal and pampered and educated as El Patron's favorite. Gradually he realizes the fate that is in store for him, and with the help of Tam Lin, his bluff and kind Scottish bodyguard, he escapes to Aztlan. There he and other "lost children" are trapped in a more subtle kind of slavery before Matt can return to Opium to take his rightful place and transform his country.

A bookmark

Plot Chart

Plot Chart
o Children discover Matt and take him to the big house.
o Matt is imprisoned because he is a clone.
o Maria and Celia rescue Matt and take him to El Patron, a powerful drug lord and the man who he is a clone of.
o Matt is educated, and grows up under the guard of Tam Lin, the care of Celia, the rivalry of Tom, and the friendship of Maria.
o At one of El Patron’s birthday parties, Maria and Matt get into a fight, and while trying to make up, Matt accidently tells Maria’s father that he, a dirty clone, loves Maria and Maria’s father take Maria away.
o Matt’s life becomes steadily more depressing until the funeral for El Patron’s grandson, who is Tom’s grandfather, where Maria forgives him.
o At Steven (Tom’s brother) and Emilia's (Maria’s sister) wedding Maria tells Matt that she loves him, but afterward El Patron has a heart attack and Matt realizes the horrible truth: He exists to be killed for a heart transplant so El Patron will live longer.
o When he is brought in for a transplant, Celia reveals that she has been poisoning Matt just enough so that he can’t be used for transplants.
o Tam Lin helps Matt escape from El Patron’s country to Atzlan, where Matt is taken to an orphanage run by the harsh keeper’s.
o Matt makes friends with three other boys held by the keepers, and together they escape to San Luis, where Maria is.
o Matt meet’s Maria’s mother, who explains to Matt that he is really human, in soul and international law.
o Matt returns to El Patron’s opium land only to find out that El Patron arranged to have almost everyone at the place where Matt grew up to die, but Matt swears to take Opium and make into a non-drug non-border land.

Character Celia

Celia
Celia is kind, loving, and friendly she takes care of Matt and teaches him a lot she does not let El Patron hurt him.

Character: El Patron

El Patron
El Patron is old, greedy, selfish, and rich. He is trying to rule all of his home by living along time.
P.54 He was extremely thin, with shoulderlenght white hair neatly combed beside a face so seamed and wrinkled, it hardly seemed real.

Character: Matteo Alacran

Matt, Clone
Matt is a clone El Patron made him to take his life he is the type of person that knows nothing at first to being very smart.
P.23 “What’s going on?” came a voice Matt hadn’t heard before. “You need a vet for this beast.”

Hi, I am Brandon Lopez and I am a good reader I like to read a lot my favorite book is the Eragon books and all the Pendragon books. I also think that The House of the Scorpion is also a good book I reccomend it to anyone.