I Text Dead People

Gr 5–8—When Anna moves to a new town, she hopes that the mansion her mom inherited from an uncle will make life in her snooty new school a bit easier. The hardest part, being phoneless, seems to be solved when she finds a phone on her way to school. Soon life gets a bit crazy with cliques causing trouble at school, a creepy guy following her around, the boy she likes dating someone else, and the dead people texting her to ask for help. With a fast-paced, plot-heavy style, this book careens between high school drama and ghostly intrigue. Cooper attempts to weave in suspense, horror, and quirky humor while creating relatable characters resulting in a fun but slightly scattered novel for tweens. Younger readers will appreciate a sanitized peek into high school relationships that focuses more on predictable relationship conflicts with unpredictable horror lines thrown in to keep the story interesting and fresh.