In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Time Out for Reading selection for October is The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.  This award winning book, 2002 National Book Award, 2003 Newbery Honor Book, 2003 Michael L. Printz Honor Book, is a riveting sci-fi thriller about a young clone struggling for acceptance in his tumultuous, sheltered world.

 

Matt Alacránis a clone of El Patrón, a powerful drug lord of the land of Opium, which is located between the United States and Mexico. For six years, Matt has lived in a tiny cottage in the poppy fields with Celia, 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 is different. Though Matt has been spared the fate of most clones, who have their intelligence destroyed at birth, the evil inhabitants of El Patrón's empire consider him a "beast" and an "eejit." When El Patrón dies at the age of 146, fourteen-year-old Matt escapes Opium with the help of Celia and Tam Lin, his devoted bodyguard. After a near misadventure in his escape, Matt makes his way back home and begins to rid the country of its evils.