Becoming Julia is the fifth young adult novel by English writer Chris Westwood

Chris Westwood (author)

Christopher Westwood also known as Chris Westwood is an English author and journalist. Born as the son of a coal miner and school teacher, he is best known as the author of young adult fiction and children's books...

. It was first published in the UK by Viking

Penguin Books

Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...

in 1995 and became a runner-up in the Sheffield Children's Book Award (1996) and the Lancashire Children's Book Award (1996).

Plot summary

Maggie resembles Julia, a girl who disappeared, so the police ask Maggie to play Julia in a television reconstruction of the day she went missing.