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, TXα(c) Copyright 2011.

The future society, with Twoing contracts before marriage and the varying sector Moral Codes, keeps things lively on the romantic level. The future that Edwards constructs is creative and the dig descriptions are well thought out.

Jarra is an independent heroine, though she giggles an awful lot. 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. 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.

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. 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. Since the Exodus, most people live on other planets. 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. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. She isn't expecting to make friends with the enemy, to risk her life to save norms, or to fall in love. She wants to see their faces when they find out they've been fooled into thinking an ape girl was a norm. Jarra makes up a fake military background for herself and joins a class of norms who are on Earth for a year of practical history studies excavating the dangerous ruins of the old cities. She's an 'ape,' a 'throwback,' but this is one ape girl who won't give in. She can't travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes they make. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. Eighteen-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. A sensational YA science fiction debut from an exciting new British author! Just because she's confined to the planet, doesn't mean she can't reach for the stars.

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards