story identification - Looking for a Pre-1975, young adult, sci-fi, colored circle dimension crossing

Looking for the title and or author of a long ago favorite; I have searched the web for it on and off for years.

I read a paperback novel about 40 years ago; it was probably a used book at that time. Probably pre-1975 publication. In my memory it was written in the style of Andre Norton I have looked through her Wikipedia Bibliography, but I am not finding it. It was a young adult sci-fi novel.

Plot; a young woman (gender was not strong, but I remember the main character being female) can see different colored circles floating around. When she looks at them just right, she can jump through to another universe. In the other universe, things change. She might become a lion, or maybe she is carrying a seed that becomes a net in the other universe.

Two bad guys are chasing her around the different dimensions, I recall one scene where they are all sliding down an icy slope and she jumps through a portal, to escape the bad guys.

There were a lot of complexities about, dimensions, what became what, different colors of portals and such.

Answer

"Spaceling" by Doris Piserchia.

The ability to see the other-dimensional rings that float in Earth's atmosphere was a late mutation of a few space-age humans. Daryl was under the care of the institution for muters, and she had discovered that if you jumped through the ring at the right time it would land you in another dimensional world and another shape. Spaceling is the story of Daryl's desperate efforts to unravel the mystery of why she was being held captive and of what was really going on in a certain alien dimension. Because she was sure it was all bad and that someday everyone would thank her for the revelation. But instead, everyone was engaged in a wild effort to hold her down, to keep her on this Earth, and to keep the world simply intact!

Comments

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