Earth Girl

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