GOLD STAR SISTER

Carrie receives a C in History because she handed in an unfinished project on WW II—she really hadn't cared enough to complete it. But when she finds a mysterious box filled with letters in her grandmother's basement, all that changes. The letters are a 50-year-old correspondence between Carrie's grandmother, Gram, and her brother Billy- -whom nobody in the family has ever heard of. Carrie questions Gram and discovers that Billy was a medic in the American army and died during the war, after which Gram and her parents never mentioned him again. (Even Carrie's father, Gram's son, didn't know about his deceased uncle.) Carrie becomes extremely involved in the story of her uncle Billy, so much so that when she finds a letter that he wrote for a dying man in his unit (but was never able to deliver), Carrie resolves to find the man's son and give him the letter herself. Carrie has another reason for wanting to deliver the letter, however: She believes that if she succeeds, her grandmother will not die of the cancer that is ravaging her. Carrie thinks that by finding the rightful owner of the letter she can save her beloved Gram. Despite the interesting WW II history, Murphy (To the Summit, 1992, etc.) delivers an essentially flat story that only picks up a little at the tear-jerky end. (Fiction. 10- 14)