Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles

Year Published: 2003
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0689866240
Pages: 126
Classification: Fiction
Media Format: Book
Interest Level: 7-12
Reading Level: 4
Subjects: Sisters, Death, Fiction

Reader's Annotation: Fourteen-year-old Sunny is stunned when a total stranger shows up at her house posing as her older sister Jazz, who supposedly died out of town in a fire months earlier.

Summary: Sunny's older sister has been presumed dead for several months when Sunny receives a letter from Jazz explaining that she was away working in a repertory theater when her apartment burned to the ground. Then Jazz, or Not-Jazz as Sunny calls her, returns home. Her mother has become addicted to sleeping pills and Dad has fallen back into the bottle since his daughter's "death." Sunny and her father soon realize that the young woman is indeed not Jazz, even though she knows a great deal about their family history and secrets. As Sunny investigates, she begins to discover who this impostor is and how she knows so much about their family.

Reviews and Awards: ALA Booklist, ALA/YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Voice of Youth Advocates

Author Website: www.gailgiles.com