num_pages: 380
description: At his coming-of-age party, Matteo Alacrán asks El Patrón's bodyguard, "How old am I? ... I know I don't have a birthday like humans, but I was born." "You were harvested," Tam Lin reminds him. "You were grown in that poor cow for nine months and then you were cut out of her." To most people around him, Matt is not a boy, but a beast. But for El Patrón, lord of a country called Opium--a strip of poppy field lying between the U.S. and what was once called Mexico--Matt is a guarantee of eternal life. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself, for Matt is himself. They share identical DNA. As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister, grasping cast of characters, including El Patrón's power-hungry family. He is surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards and by the mindless slaves of Opium, brain-deadened 'eejits' who toil in the poppy fields. Escape from the Alacrán Estate is no guarantee of freedom because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn't even suspect. Around every turn in this vivid, futuristic adventure is a new, heart-stopping surprise.
language: English
title: The House of the Scorpion
titlecomplete: The House of the Scorpion (Matteo Alacran, #1)
characters: Tam Lin, Chacho, Maria Mendoza, Fidelito, El Patron, Ton-Ton
genres: Middle Grade, Dystopia, Childrens, School, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Teen, Fantasy, Adventure, Fiction
ratings_count: 90604
series: Matteo Alacran
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Newbery Medal, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: National Book Award
category: Young People's Literature, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Mythopoeic Fantasy Award
category: Children's Literature, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Buxtehuder Bulle, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Michael L. Printz Award, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: South Carolina Book Award
category: Junior Book Award, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Grand Canyon Reader Award
category: Teen Book, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Rhode Island Teen Book Award, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Vermont Golden Dome Book Award, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award
category: Senior, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Lincoln Award, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Gateway Readers Award, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Oklahoma Sequoyah Award
category: YA
publisher: Atheneum Book