SOLVED. YA Sci Fi. Girl reluctantly travels to Mars with her father. [s]

[effazin]

I read this hardcover from the public library in the late 70s or early 80s, It has long since been weeded from the collection. I think it was shelved near the Beverly Cleary books, so author's last name probably began with either C or a letter close to it. It is not Paula Danziger's "This Place Has No Atmosphere", but it seems to have the same basic ideas/themes--teen girl leaves her social group/home via space travel for what she thinks is a backward colony but discovers the destination has its own appeal and finds happiness there once she adjusts. I'd say it fits in the 'Coming of Age' category. While it isn't one of Heinlein's books, it had the same feel to it as his juvenile books.

A teenage girl whose mother is not around (dead?) lives with a female relative but spends summers with her dad. When girl is near the end of high school her dad announces he has a wonderful opportunity--he is being sent on a trip to Mars (business? gov't?) and he can bring along one person, which will be her. She doesn't want to go because she had her next few years all planned out (school and social life) and it will be a year or more before they get back. She sulks and protests, but is forced to go. On board, her poor attitude does not win her any friends or allies among the people she meets. There are a small number of children/teens on the ship, but she alienates them with her constant complaining and her attitude that people who live on Mars are backward and ignorant. One young man who is returning home to Mars takes on trying to improve her attitude as a personal challenge.

SPOILER:



When her father dies during the trip, leaving her with no return ticket, the young man's family unofficially adopts her and helps her adapt to Mars. She enrolls in college there, and is amazed to find that the educational standards on Mars are more rigorous than on Earth. Over time as she adjusts to living on Mars she loses her “Everything Earth is superior” viewpoint. Near the end of the book she is faced with the one-time chance to return to Earth, or to stay with the people she has come to think of as her new family, and it surprised to realize it is a difficult choice. There is probably a romance between the girl and the boy who "adopts" her.

[Becca]

Journey Between Worlds by Sylvia Engdahl, maybe? First published in 1970.

[effazin]

Oh, yes! From the blurb on Amazon, that sounds like the right one.
Thinking back, in the late 70s I read everything of Engdahl's that I could get my hands on. Somehow since then, I'd mentally filed her as author of the Enchantress books, and of the Children of the Star trilogy and forgotten she wrote other things too.