House of Scorpion

Nancy Farmer's "House of Scorpion" is a very interesting book. It is an adventure, and a warning about cloning and drug trafficking. The novel chronicles the early life of Mateo, a boy who finds out he is a clone of El Patron, who he refers to as his grandfather, a man who uses body parts of his clones to replace his own as they wear out; he lives to 148 or so. El Patron is also a drug lord in a land on the Mexican-American border called Opium, which he secured by promising to control the cross border drug flow. Genetic manipulation and some type of operational or chemical lobotomies are performed on Mexicans who get caught trying to reach a better existence in America. They are turned into slave workers for the Cartel. The kid escapes and finds out what is really going on in the outside world, but it may not be any better than the fake but idyllic world of his childhood. He realizes he will be harvested as soon as his parts are ripe for El Patron. Farmer is a clever and creative writer, and I have recently acquired more of her work for our school library.