Books

“Catherine and Claudia’s Top Spring Reads” will be a recurring feature in the final months of the 2013-2014 school year. If you’re looking for your next independent reading book for Language Arts or are in need of a good read for summer, look no further! Summaries and ratings of three books will be published every two weeks. Hate List by Jennifer Brown is about a high school junior named Valerie Leftman. On May 2nd, 2009, Valerie’s boyfriend, Nick Levil, open fires on their high school because of a “hate list” they made containing kids from school. Valerie spends the rest of the book  trying to convince herself, and everyone else, that what happened was not her fault. She also tries to find ways to make amends with the families of the victims. Stars: 9.2/10 Rating: R It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini is about a 15-year-old named…

The Lord of Opium, published in 2013, is a science-fiction sequel to Nancy Farmer’s previous award-winning novel, The House of Scorpion. The House of Scorpion was published in 2002 and connects to today’s world by touching upon issues of drugs, money, and class. This story is set in a society in which drug lords rule countries, and mindless slaves called “eejits” work the drug fields. Eejits do not have minds of their own and do the sole bidding of their masters. These people were originally injected with a chemical fluid that converts them to this state. Matteo Alacran, the clone of drug lord El Patron, became the Lord of Opium when El Patron died in The House of Scorpion. Matteo must now gain the respect of the surrounding countries and prevent them from attacking his home. Matteo embarks on a journey throughout the land of opium to find the cure…