Science Fiction: The House of the Scorpion

Farmer, N. (2002). The House of the Scorpion. New York: Simon Pulse.

Need a good book to encourage the reading habits of a male tween or teen? Look no further than this Science Fiction adventure played out in the atmosphere of a classic westerns. The story of Matteo Alvarez a secret clone of El Patron the most powerful man in the country of Opium, a country established between what was formerly Mexico, and the United States. Unlike most books that try to address the issue of drugs and their negative side effects there is none of the artificial and moralistic After-4 feeling in Farmer's work. Drug use rarely enters into the narrative, but the harmful effects of drug production are heavily emphasized. Our society is invested in recreational drug use and so the older images of “your brain on drugs” are losing their impact. However, the negative impact drug production has on some regions of the world is terrible and this book is a good introduction into thinking about the global harm drug use creates.