The House of the Scorpion

This dystopian, young-adult novel is utterly fascinating, disturbing, and engrossing. The future world Nancy Farmer has created is disturbingly believable, but the ultimate trajectory of the book is one of resilience and hope. The style is very readable but also gives children and young adults a lot of credit in being able to take on a challenging book.

I read this a lot in 5th grade and middle school. I remember this was my favorite book. It really took me to other places and it made me love reading more because before then when I visualized book as I read them it was never so vivid and clear. I finally got my hands on the sequel part way through middle school and I remember enjoying it too.