The Secret Under My Skin

by Janet McNaughton

Book Overview

In the year 2368, humanity struggles to recuperate from a technocaust that has left a generation of orphans in its wake. Strict government regulations convince people that technology is dangerous;... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060089911
• ISBN13: 9780060089917
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Harperteen
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Everyone has secrets ...

Imagine yourself in the near future. You don't know where your parents are, or who you truly are. If you can picture that, you can picture Blay Raytree's story. The story begins with Blay in practically a sweatshop-orphanage in the year 2368. She ggets picked out of all of the other orphans to assist a bio-indicator. While she is in the house he bio-indicator is living in, she realizes something. Whenever she runs her wrist near the kitchen scanner, it beeps. Blay asks a friend, Lem Howell, an electronics genius, to help her. They find out it is an information chip with her age (sixteen years od), real name (Which is Blake Raintree), and other important information. In return, Blake helps Lem Howell and his son, Fraser. After Lem's wife was kidnapped by the Commission, Lem went insane and was unable to care for his son, so the town took up that duty. However, when Lem recovers his sanity, he can remember everything but the birth of his son. Blake helps to reunite them, and they then decide to live together. Blake then realizes that Marella, the bio-indicator, has to go on a task by herself, which means she wouldn't be able to use Blake's special knowledge. Because Blake worried about what would happen if Marella failed the last test. Blake runs to the Masterr and tells him everything that she has dne for Marella to help her to complete the tasks. Instead of being scolded or punished like she expected, she was praised for her knowledge and love for all things Science. After that, the book begins to wind down, and it shows the world healing from the Technocaust, the very war that caused so many children to be parentless and not know who they were, or where they came from. I give this book five stars and two thumbs p, because Janet McNaughton did a wonderful job weaving a story about the future into things that have happened in the past (the Holocaust, Hitler's invasion, most of World War II, just in a different year, and on a greater scale of damage).She obviously scrutinized over the amount of detail that wat put into it. Anyone who is into science-fiction books, books about what could happen in the future due to the way humans are behaving in the present, or just want a good, heartrending book that you can cuddle up with, then this book is awesome. I would recommend it to people ages fourteen to sixty. *C.S. Larochelle

The Secret Under my Skin

Blay Raytee wants to find her identity. When she gets the chance she takes it. She looks into her past and finds horrible things that happened to many citizens of Toronto her home city. The Technocaust was the cause of all this and she wants to do something about it. She meets an old man who finds out her identity and the rest goes on from there. This book was an amazing look into the future and told me about differences. This book is the all-time best book ever!

A hidden gem

Really good science fiction for teenagers is rare. It tends to be based on idiot science and have a subliminal message that the only important thing in life is family. Janet McNaughton's The Secret Under My Skin falls into neither trap. Set in the far future, on an ecologically degraded earth, the politics are scary and the heroes real people. No soppy earth mothers, no great destinies, just hard work and human ingenuity. I loved this book.

Real sf for teenagers

Set in the far future in a world wrecked by exploitation, there is no airy fairy mysticism, just sensible plotting and an attempt to get to grips with scientific and technological possibilities in poor circumstances. Well written and really compelling characters.

The Secret Under my Skin

The Secret Under My Skin. Hits the point.It will make you think about life and world. Are really going to end up that way? Are really that un-caring to the world?This girl was scared and different. Was she really that way because of something the world did a generation or two ago?This book is in the future. One girl must help another.She must find out what happened to her parents.And above all else she must tell the truth in a world of lies.