Star Born

Star Born is a science fiction novel by American writer Andre Norton, first published in 1957 by World Publishing Company of Cleveland. This is the sequel to The Stars Are Ours! and continues that adventure three generations on.

In The Stars Are Ours!, a group of scientists and engineers converts an interplanetary spaceship for an interstellar journey to escape from a vile anti-intellectual dictatorship. Traveling at sub-light speed, with its crew and passengers in suspended animation, the ship coasts for centuries, finally reaching a star with an Earth-like planet, Astra, on which the ship lands. On that alien world the humans befriend sentient humanoids, the amphibious merpeople, who appear to have evolved from creatures similar to otters. The new colonists also discover the ruins of cities once occupied by Those Others, a malevolently intelligent species that once enslaved the merpeople.

Kirkus Reviews, on 1 May 1957, wrote:
Dalgard Nordis, a terran on Astra, goes through a series of adventures which reflect Andre Norton's preoccupation with social problems on a broad if simplified and the possibility of life on another planet in another solar system like Earth's. Dal people are fourth or fifth generation settlers but remember Earth well enough be disturbed by the arrival of another space ship. Its passengers, discovered and helped by Dalgard after an accident, are the cause of another discovery, the solving of the mystery of The Others, a mighty and tyrannical but supposedly lost civilization that had ruled Astra long ago. With a new threat from them overcome, the Terrans try to persuade Dalgard to return with them but he now realizes Astra is his own land. Good. (wikipedia.org)
About the author:
Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 - March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew North and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, to be SFWA Grand Master, and to be inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Often called the Grande Dame of Science Fiction and Fantasy by biographers such as J. M. Cornwell, and organizations such as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Publishers Weekly, and Time, Andre Norton wrote novels for more than 70 years. She had a profound influence on the entire genre, having more than 300 published titles read by at least four generations of science fiction and fantasy readers and writers. Notable authors who cite her influence include Greg Bear, Lois McMaster Bujold, C. J. Cherryh, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Tanya Huff, Mercedes Lackey, Charles de Lint, Joan D. Vinge, David Weber, K. D. Wentworth, and Catherine Asaro.
On February 20, 2005, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, which had honored Norton with its Grand Master Award in 1984, announced the creation of the Andre Norton Award, to be given each year for an outstanding work of fantasy or science fiction for the young adult literature market, beginning with 2005 publications. While the Norton Award is not a Nebula Award, it is voted on by SFWA members on the Nebula ballot and shares some procedures with the Nebula Awards. Nominally for a young adult book, actually the eligible class is middle grade and young adult novels. This added a category for genre fiction to be recognized and supported for young readers. Unlike Nebulas, there is a jury whose function is to expand the ballot beyond the six books with most nominations by members.
Norton received the Inkpot Award in 1989. (wikipedia.org)