LCE 6th grade Electronic Book Review

1. Student Reviewer’s Name: Matthew O.
2. Date of review of book: February 2008
3. Complete Book Title: The House of the Scorpion
4. Author of Book: Nancy Farmer
5. Year the book was published: 2002
6. Genre: Science Fiction
7. Student rating of the book (1 the highest, 5 the lowest): 1

8. Main conflict in the book:
Matteo Alacran was artificially cloned and was born from the womb of a cow. Matt is the clone of the powerful druglord, El Patron who intends to use Matt as livestock to replace his failing heart.
Because Matt is a clone, others see him as a filthy, dumb animal. Matt must overcome this hatred and escape to survive from the Alacran estate.

9. Setting of the book: (place and time)
This story takes place in the fictional futuristic country of Opium and in the region of Azlan, which are located in between the United States and Mexico.

10. Main Characters and part they play in the book:
(1) Matt Alacran, a clone, whose brain was not destroyed like other clones, faces the resentfulness of
people.
(2) Maria Mendoza, the daughter of Senator Mendoza, befriends, and is his only friend for many
years. Also, Maria is the girl Matt is in love with.
(3) El Patron, a 140 year old man, is a rich, powerful drug lord, who is also the creator of Matt.
(4) Chaco and Fidelito are lost boys or are orphans who befriend Matt.
(5) Tam Lin is the bodyguard of both El Patron and Matt, also he helped Matt survive.
(6) Celia is Matt’s caretaker and the chief cook for El Patron, she too helped Matt survive.

11. Are the characters believable and interesting?
The characters in this book are believable because they have humanistic traits of curiosity, intelligent, forgiveness, and prejudice. The characters are interesting as they display many emotions such as anger, fear, jealousy, and compassion in dealing with each other. Even though this story is in the future, the characters’ relationships are the same as they are in today’s society. What Matt goes through is believable because there are people who experience the same trials and challenges today.

12. One excellent direct quotation from the book: (include who said it, page number, and use
quotation marks!)
“‘No one can tell the difference between a clone and a human. That’s because there isn’t any difference. The idea of the clones being inferior is a filthy lie.’” Quote from Tam Lin, (page 245)

13. Good reasons to read the book:
This excellent book is filled with exciting adventures and unpredictable twists in the storyline. This book teaches us that if you help others, they’ll help you and that no matter what happens, you can think things through to find the solution. This book also makes you think if this is the path the world will take in the future.

14. Any reasons not to read the book?
I believe this is a wonderful book and there is no reason why someone should not read it. Except if you lack an imagination, you may not enjoy this book.

15. Did you like this book or not? And why….
I enjoyed this book very much. The author’s writing gave me a clear, vivid picture of what was happening. It made me think of all the wonderful possibilities that may happen in the future but it also made me realize that some things may never change like prejudice.