The House of the Scorpion

The House of the Scorpion

 

Nancy Farmer    

The House of the Scorpion was published by Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books in September 2002, and has won a National Book Award, a Newbery Honor, and a Michael L. Printz Award. The original hardcover edition is 380 pages, but the novel is fast-paced and the adventure draws readers into the story. The House of the Scorpion is geared for ages 11 and older, but it is a lengthy chapter book that may have a higher reading level than some sixth graders may be prepared for. Though the book may attract boys, due to the mix of science fiction and action genres it embodies, girls will also enjoy the romance woven into the plot as Matteo tries to get back to María, his only companion in a household that despises him for being a clone. 

Readers who enjoyed The Giver or Ender’s Game may enjoy The House of the Scorpion, which combines the futuristic science fiction world of Ender’s Game with the heavy burden of the knowledge of freedom in The Giver. Matteo Alacrán, the protagonist of The House of the Scorpion, shares both Jonah’s will to live and feel emotion as well as the pain of Ender’s intense isolation.

If The House of the Scorpion were being made into a film: 

Press Release 16 March 2012

“The House of the Scorpion,” a new film that will be released in theaters next month, features Gabriel Velasquez as Matteo Alacrán, a young boy isolated in an opium field who discovers that he is actually the clone of a powerful drug lord. Based on Nancy Farmer’s novel of the same name, director Andrew Gordon plans to re-create Farmer’s science-fiction thriller in the deserts of Arizona, a disconnect from the typical sci-fi settings of outer space or the laboratories of mad scientists. Set in a fictional nation called Opium, a strip of land between Arizona and Mexico, Matteo is given anything he could want by El Patrón, a 140-year-old drug lord and patriarch of the Alacrán family. The rest of the Alacrán family are not too pleased with Matteo’s status as clone, or his high standing with the powerful El Patrón, so things turn sour for Matteo when El Patrón dies. Alone and totally ignorant about the world outside the opium fields, Matteo now must escape and survive in the Communist futuristic Mexico known as Aztlán.

“We’re really excited about this film,” says Joan Snyder, co-producer of “The House of the Scorpion,” “though the action and adventure target middle and high school male audiences, we’re hoping the threads of romance and science fiction will lure girls and adults into the theater as well. Though the novel is technically a sci-fi, we’ve done a lot with the screenplay and the characters, and it should appeal to a wider audience.”

You won’t want to miss “The House of the Scorpion,” coming soon to a cinema near you.