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The House of the Scorpion

Condition: BRAND NEW ISBN: 9780689852220 Author(s): Nancy Farmer Format: Hardcover Year: 2002 Publisher: Atheneum Books Dimensions: 152 x 231 x 38 (w x l x h) Pages: 400 Pages: 12-17

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Description: A Simon Pulse Guide for Reading Groups

"The House of the Scorpion"

By Nancy Farmer

ABOUT THE BOOK

Matt is a clone of El Patron, a powerful drug lord of the land of Opium, which is located between the United States and Mexico. For six years, he has lived in a tiny cottage in the poppy fields with Celia, a kind and deeply religious servant woman who is charged with his care and safety. He knows little about his existence until he is discovered by a group of children playing in the fields and wonders why he isn't like them. Though Matt has been spared the fate of most clones, who have their intelligence destroyed at birth, the evil inhabitants of El Patron's empire consider him a "beast" and an "eejit." When El Patron dies at the age of 146, fourteen-year-old Matt escapes Opium with the help of Celia and Tam Lin, his devoted bodyguard who wants to right his own wrongs. After a near misadventure in his escape, Matt makes his way back home and begins to rid the country of its evils.

Prereading activity

Ask students to write down their definition of science fiction. Then have them discuss the meaning of cloning. Have them debate whether a novel about cloning is by their definition considered science fiction.

Discussion questions

Matteo Alacran is the clone of El Patron, the lord of the country called Opium, and lives in isolation until children playing in the poppy fields disc