Starmother — Sydney J. Van Scyoc

This is the 1984 second printing paperback edition of this novel, which appeared in 1976. Van Scyoc published science fiction between 1962 and the early 90s, often with feminist overtones and strong characters. In StarMother, Cadet Janna of the Interstellar Peace Corps becomes a champion of cast-out mutant children, descendants of the first human colonists on a distant planet.