Tay is 14 and she is a girl with a secret. Officially documented as Taylor Five she is the clone child of a globally famous scientist. Like her gene mother, she will grow up to have phenomenal physical and mental abilities. She is an experiment in the corporate race to create a perfect being. For now she is living with her adopted family who work in the rainforests of Borneo rehabilitating orang-utans and returning them to the wild. Uncle is one orangutan who has chosen stay, hes almost like one of the family. Then terrorists strike the refuge, killing her parents, and Tay sets out on a harrowing adventure accompanied by Uncle. Her already extraordinary existence becomes even more fascinating as Uncles huge intelligence and uncannily human behaviour develops an unshakeable bond between them as he tries to help her to safety.

 

 

This book is the winner of numerous awards

There are 192 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2002 by Hachette Children's Group .

Ann Halam is the internationally-acclaimed author of ghost and horror stories for children and science fiction (as Gwyneth Jones) for adults. She has been shortlisted for many awards including the WH Smith Mind Boggling Books Award and has twice won the World Fantasy Award. She lives in Brighton.