I TEXT DEAD PEOPLE

Thirteen-year-old Anna has just moved into the creepy mansion next to the cemetery and has hopes of making friends in her posh new school.

She finds a cellphone that might replace the one she lost, but it only works sporadically, sending her cryptic texts. Meanwhile she meets Millie, a nice girl in school, who warns her about the twin queen bees, Olivia and Eden, who manipulate Anna into doing their homework. Everyone in her new town seems to be rich except Anna's family, though, as long as she continues to do their homework for them, Olivia and Eden tolerate her. But when Lucy, a girl with a delusional crush on a classmate, is accidentally killed in the cemetery, Anna begins receiving texts from her on the phone. Not understanding that she’s dead, Lucy demands that Anna help her, haunting her ever more intrusively. Cooper writes with a light style and demonstrates keen insight into the social anxieties of middle schoolers. She occasionally includes her own whimsical line drawings that add to the humorous tone of the book. A really nice plot twist at the end should please readers.

Good, ghostly fun.