The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes

For that reason, this is one for upper KS2 and beyond in my opinion. When Aveline thinks that ‘ For the first time in her life she understood the phrase blood-chilling ‘ there is no sense of exaggeration. The tension increases as the story proceeds so that unease gradually becomes terror. However terrified, she cannot stop reading until she knows immersed in this gripping book, we share her predicament. Why is the bookseller horrified over the book he has just given Aveline? What is the significance of the missing story? Who is the mysterious Primrose Penberthy? Aveline herself becomes desperate, despite her better judgment, to discover the answers. Practical Aunt Lilian dismisses her fears and provides rational explanations for the creepy disturbances, but as the mood gradually ratchets up from unsettling to menacing the reader becomes less sure. Or is it perhaps Aveline’s obsession with ghost stories that has heightened her imagination so that she sees an innocent Halloween decoration and fears something ‘otherworldly’?

Phil Hickes quickly adds fresh tension to this familiar scenario, creating in Malmouth the unsettled air of a town with ‘all the right ingredients for a haunting’. Has a second-hand book ever made you ponder the mysterious connections with those who possessed it before you? If so, then this story will colour that calm wondering with a new element of terror!Īveline Jones is left with an aunt due to a family crisis. With a spine-tingling plot and a fittingly bleak, stormy setting, this chilling book is not for the faint-hearted.įind out more about The Haunting of Aveline Jones on our library Wakelet page.The Haunting of Aveline Jones is a powerful book with a cracking plot.

However, as Aveline is drawn deeper into the tales, events take an unsettling turn.

Hoping the stories may provide clues about Primrose’s fate, Aveline investigates, enlisting the help of bookseller Mr Lieberman and his great-nephew Harold. When she finds a book about local ghosts and phantoms in a dusty, second-hand bookshop, Aveline is intrigued to learn that it once belonged to 11-year-old Primrose Penberthy, who mysteriously disappeared from Malmouth thirty years earlier. Despite her fondness for ghost stories, she finds the town a little creepy, particularly when sinister scarecrows appear outside people’s homes in the lead up to Halloween. Aveline is not looking forward to spending half term with her Aunt Lilian in Malmouth, a windswept village on the Cornish coast.

The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes