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***** THIS WEEK'S BOOK *****
THE LORD OF OPIUM by Nancy Farmer
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* FROM THE BOOK JACKET *
Matt has always been nothing but a clone--grown from a
strip of old El Patron's skin. Now, at age fourteen, he
finds himself suddenly thrust into the position of ruling
over his own country. The Land of Opium is the largest
territory of the Dope Confederacy, which ranges on the map
like an intestine from the ruins of San Diego to the ruins
of Matamoros. But while Opium thrives, the rest of the
world has been devastated by ecological disaster--and
hidden in Opium is the cure.
And that isn't all that awaits within the depths of Opium.
Matt is haunted by the ubiquitous army of eejits,
zombielike workers harnessed to the old El Patron's
sinister system of drug growing--people stripped of the
very qualities that once made them human.
Matt wants to use his newfound power to help, to stop the
suffering, but he can't even find a way to smuggle his
childhood love, Maria, across the border and into Opium.
Instead, his every move hits a roadblock, some from the
enemies that surround him--and some from a voice within
himself. For who is Matt really, but the clone of an evil,
murderous dictator?
______________________________
Dear Reader,
Hi, my name's Daniel, I'm 16 years old, and this is my first time
doing this. Even though this probably goes without speaking, I love
to read. My favorite series is the Inheritance cycle by Christopher
Paolini. I tend to only read fantasy, but every once in awhile I
like to read science-fiction, or a mystery.
Read today's segment.
This book starts out pretty mysteriously. Usually, you can at least
figure out what's going on from the first segment. One thing really
stuck out to me, though. The first was the reference to The Day of
the Dead. It'd be really creepy to be visited by dead relatives, but
it would be nice because you could never truly lose somebody.
(Assuming you like them, that is.) Talk to you tomorrow.
Daniel
Email me at: Teen@emailbookclub.com
Missing an email? Go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/
______________________________
***** THIS WEEK'S BOOK *****
THE LORD OF OPIUM by Nancy Farmer
Published by Atheneum
ISBN: 9781442482548, Copyright (c) 2013 by Celia Bryce
THE OASIS
Matt woke in darkness to the sound of something moving past him. The
air stirred slightly with the smell of warm, musky fur. The boy
jumped to his feet, but the sleeping bag entangled him and he fell.
His hands collided with sharp thorns. He flailed around for a rock,
a knife, any sort of weapon.
Something huffed. The musky odor became stronger. Matt's hand felt a
metal bar, and for an instant he didn't know what it was. Then he
realized it was a flashlight and turned it on.
The beam illuminated a large, doglike face at the other end of the
sleeping bag. The boy's heart almost stopped. He remembered, long
ago, a note Tam Lin had written him about the hazards of this place:
"Ratlesnakes heer. Saw bare under tree."
This was definitely a "bare." Matt had only seen them on TV, where
they did amusing tricks and begged for treats. The bear's eyes
glinted as it contemplated the treat holding the flashlight. Matt
tried to remember what to do. Look bigger? Play dead? Run?
The flashlight! It was a special one used by the Farm Patrol. One
button was for ordinary use, the other shone with ten times the
brightness of the sun. Flashed into the eyes of an Illegal, it would
blind the person for at least half an hour. Matt jammed his thumb on
the second button, and the bear's face turned perfectly white. The
animal screamed. It hurled itself away, falling over bushes, moaning
with terror, breaking branches as it fled.
Matt struggled to his feet.Where was he? Why was he alone? After a
minute he remembered to switch the beam off to save the battery.
Darkness enveloped him, and for a few minutes he was as blind as the
bear. He sat down again, shivering. Gradually, the night settled
back into a normal pattern, and he realized that he was at the
oasis. He cradled the flashlight. Tam Lin had given it to him, to
protect him from animals when he was camping. "You don't need a gun,
lad," the bodyguard had said. "You don't want to kill a poor beastie
that's only walking through its backyard. You're the one that's
trespassing." Matt could hear Tam Lin's warm Scottish voice in his
mind. The man loved animals and knew a lot about them, even though
he'd been poorly educated.
Matt found the campfire he'd banked the night before and blew the
coals into life. The flaring light made him feel better. In all the
years of camping here, he'd never seen a bear, though there had been
many raccoons, chipmunks, and coyotes. A skunk had once burrowed
into Matt's sleeping bag in the middle of the night to steal a candy
bar. Tam Lin had burned the sleeping bag and scolded the boy for
foolishness. "Leave food about and you might as well put a sign on
yourself saying 'Eat me.'" Matt had been scrubbed head to toe with
tomato juice when they got back to the hacienda.
Matt heaped the fire with dry wood from the supply Tam Lin had
always maintained. He could see the familiar outlines of an old
cabin and a collapsed grapevine.
Tam Lin wasn't with him. He would never come here again. He was
lying in a tomb beneath the mountain with El Patron and all of El
Patron's family and friends, if you could say the old drug lord had
friends. The funeral, three months before, had been attended by
fifty bodyguards dressed in black suits, with guns hidden under
their arms and strapped to their legs. The floor of the tomb had
been covered with drifts of gold coins. The bodyguards had filled
their pockets with gold, probably thinking their fortunes were made,
but that was before they drank the poisoned wine. Now they would lie
at their master's feet for all eternity to guard him at whatever
fiestas were conducted by the dead. Matt drew the sleeping bag
around himself, trembling with grief and nerves.
He would not sleep again. To distract himself, he looked for the
constellations Tam Lin had shown him. It was early spring, and Orion
the Hunter was still in the sky. "Heed the stars of his belt," said
Tam Lin. "Where they set is true west. Remember that, lad. You never
know when you'll need it." They had been roasting hot dogs over a
fire and drinking cider from a bottle Tam Lin had cooled by
submerging it in the lake.
"What a grand existence it must be," mused the bodyguard, turning
his battered face to the sky, "to roam the heavens like Orion with
his faithful dogs at heel." The dogs, Sirius and Procyon, were two
of the brightest stars in the summer sky. Pinning Orion's tunic to
his shoulder was ruby-red Betelgeuse. "As fine a jewel as you'll
find anywhere," Tam Lin had declared.
Matt hoped Tam Lin was roaming now in whatever afterlife he
inhabited. The dead in Aztlan came home once a year to celebrate the
Day of the Dead with their relatives. They must be somewhere the
rest of the time, Matt reasoned. Why shouldn't they do what made
them happiest on earth, and why shouldn't Tam Lin?
Matt found Polaris, around which the other stars circled, and the
Scorpion Star (but that was so easy even an eejit could do it). The
Scorpion Star was always in the south and, like Polaris, never
moved. Its real name was Alacran. Matt was proud of this, for it was
his name too. The Alacrans were so important, they could lay claim
to an actual star.
Matt didn't think he could fall asleep again, and so he was
surprised when he woke up in the sleeping bag just before dawn. A
breeze was stirring, and a pale rosy border outlined the eastern
mountains. Gray-green juniper trees darkened valleys high up in the
rocks, and the oasis was dull silver under a gray sky. A crow
called, making Matt jump at the sudden noise.
After breakfast and a short, sharp swim in the lake, Matt hiked
along the trail to the boulder that blocked the entrance to the
valley. In this rock, if you looked at just the right angle, was a
shadow that turned out to be a smooth, round opening like the hole
in a donut. Beyond was a steep path covered with dry pebbles that
slid beneath your feet. The air changed from the fresh breeze of the
mountain to something slightly sweet with a hint of corruption. The
scent of opium poppies.
THE NEW LORD OF OPIUM
Matt had left the Safe Horse under a cliff the night before. It was
still waiting, as it had been commanded, but its head was down and
its legs trembled. "Oh no! How could I have been so stupid?" cried
Matt, rushing to the trough. It was half full of water, but the
horse had not been given permission to drink, and now Matt
remembered that he hadn't watered it the night before. It would
stand there, mere inches away from relief, until it died. "Drink!"
Matt ordered.
(continued on Tuesday)
______________________________
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