Earth Girl

Beth Wilson - This book is great. Jarra isn't perfect; the reason that she signs up for a class with Norms is so that she can get some revenge on them for looking down on the Handicapped, and thus, on her. However, she's not so flawed that she's unlikable. Indeed, she's just flawed enough that we can relate with her anger and frustration, but not flawed enough that we dislike her. The world is an interesting one, but, unusually nowadays, not a dystopic one. I like dystopias, but it's refreshing to see a world where the main social conflict is on a personal level instead of being institutionalized. In fact, the government in this book is competent and compassionate, two things sorely missing from most governments in both the real world and in fictional worlds. Individual prejudices still play a part, but at least the government treats the Handicapped well.

Starred review from February 1, 2013
A disabled teen archaeologist works in fascinating, hazardous conditions on a far-future Earth. It's 2789. Humanity lives on numerous planets. Transportation, including between star systems, merely requires stepping into a portal--even schoolchildren do a "mass off-world kiddie commute" daily. But off-world atmospheres are fatal for the rare babies born Handicapped, who are portalled to Earth within minutes and must stay forever. Parents tend to disappear, unwilling to live on Earth just to raise a "throwback." Earth provides those on its Handicapped wards full care, education and career choice, but Jarra's bitter that "exos" (non-Handicapped norms) consider her an "ape," "the garbage of the universe." Enrolling in a Pre-history course that's taught on Earth but administered by an off-world university, Jarra plans to quench her thirst for history while teaching some exos a lesson. Terrific nitty-gritty details limn her team's excavations of a high-risk dig site that was once Manhattan. Although readers won't see disabilities they recognize, Edwards successfully shows that being physically unable to partake in society's core structure equals disability. Jarra slides temporarily--implausibly--from matter-of-fact first-person narrator to a character in denial of her reality, but more important are perilous rescues, Jarra's skills, a solar superstorm that closes portals and endangers hundreds of Military, and some humorous romance with sparkling chemistry. Action, rich archaeological detail and respectfully levelheaded disability portrayal, refreshingly free from symbolism and magical cures, make this stand out. (Science fiction. 11-16)

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March 1, 2013

Gr 7-9-Just because Jarra is Handicapped doesn't mean she's a nardle-brain, and certainly not that ultimate insult: an "ape." Almost 700 years in the future, Earth has been largely abandoned, a huge data crash lost most of written history, and portals allow instant transportation across vast distances. Since the Exodus, most people live on other planets. Jarra and other Handicapped cannot use the portals, and for some reason (never made clear), they are considered less intelligent by the Norms, who portal here and there on a daily basis. Jarra decides to show them that she is just as good as they are and applies to an off-world college conducting an archaeology dig on the abandoned buildings of New York. Reinventing herself as Jarra Military Kid, JMK watches vids and takes combat lessons and thinks about how the Norm jaws will drop when she eventually reveals that she is Handicapped. Since she grew up on Earth and has been to the New York digs many times, her skills quickly allow her to shine, particularly when solar flares close the portal, stranding dig teams on Earth. Jarra is an independent heroine, though she giggles an awful lot. The future that Edwards constructs is creative and the dig descriptions are well thought out. The future society, with Twoing contracts before marriage and the varying sector Moral Codes, keeps things lively on the romantic level. The "person against nature" conflict with unstable dig conditions and solar flares makes a refreshing change from "person against paranormal" or "person against government" conflicts currently popular in many YA books.-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2013
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Tired of bitter, angst-ridden heroines and their associated dark dystopias? Look no further than Edwards' refreshing debut, set in the darn-near-utopian universe of 2788 and starring a confident, motormouthed, giggly 18-year-old named Jarra. She's Handicapped (an ape if you're rude), the one-in-a-thousand born with a condition that doesn't allow her to portal outside of Earth. And who wants to hang around boring old Earth? Nobody, unless you're studying prehistory. So Jarra conspires to join a first-year college archaeology course of off-world teens to prove that an ape can sift through the ruins of New York City just as well, or better, than any privileged Betan or Deltan or Gamman. Make no mistake, this is hard sf (though not painfully hard) that largely forgoes heart-pounding drama in favor of fascinating technicalities and flawless world logic. Yes, there is a romance, but it's far from the swooning sort: Jarra comes to respect the otherworld norms she has set out to shock and soon is considering boy and girling with Fian, or even entering with him into a Twoing contract. If these patient, intelligent particulars are making your eyes glaze over, that's because they're all too rarely found on Planet YA. As Jarra would (loudly) say, this book is totally zan!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)