Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

A new dystopian novel! Earth Girl is set on Earth in the very far future. Many planets have been explored and are now home to humans- interplanet travel is easily accessible and people are free to go from planet to planet. Except for a few handicapped people- when they are born on another planet, they have a matter of minutes before they will die, unless they make it to Earth. Earth is now home to all of these handicapped people-they are considered to be a inferior group of people and people on other planets poke fun at them and pity them. Jarra is a young girl who is very resentful of her lower status, when she is given the choice of post-secondary education, she choose one that will put her in direct contact with those who consider her less. She goes into the situation hoping to fool them all and then when she has proven her worth, she will let them all know how wrong they are. But as Jarra gets to know these people from other planets, she is surprised to discover that they are just like her, they have their doubts about their abilities and their life path. Soon Jarra must decide how to live the rest of her life, even when it goes against everything she has ever believed. There were many parts of this story that I really enjoyed. Trying to understand what was happening and the history of the future of earth (if that makes any sense) was very difficult and seemed unnecessary at times. Jarra is a great character- she is tough- like Katniss and Tris and she has something to prove. I love female characters like that! The story was hard to follow in some spots- it is really hard to visualize the work Jarra did, but at the same time, it was quite interesting as well. I will recommend this book- to both boys and girls- I can see both enjoying the story. I think one of the best parts about this book is that it ended within the book, that means I don't have to wait for a sequel and to try and remember what happened in the first book. And for that alone- it is a great read!