The Bewitching of Aveline Jones

Name: The Bewitching of Aveline Jones
Author: Phil Hickes

by Phil Hickes

Ages 9–12 Reading age 10 Novel Set in everyday life spookyadventurous

Aveline spends half term in a Cornish village beside a stone circle, where a girl her age is far too keen to be friends.

A story about children, spooky and adventurous in tone. We would put it with children of 9–12, and at a reading age of about 10 for reading alone.

Worth knowing before you buy

Frightening scenes

None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.

Part of a series

This is book 2 of the Aveline Jones series, so there is more to read if it goes down well — which is worth a great deal with a reluctant reader.

Our take on this book

Spending a rainy half-term in a gloomy seaside town, Aveline Jones — who loves a good scary story — finds an old book of ghost tales and is drawn into the real and unsettling mystery of a witch who vanished long ago, and who may not be finished with the town. Phil Hickes writes proper atmospheric spookiness for this age: mist, old bookshops, a genuine sense of unease, and a bookish, likeable heroine whose love of ghost stories makes her the perfect guide. The scares are real but pitched for the age — creepy and suspenseful rather than gory or traumatic — so it suits a child who actively enjoys a shiver. For a nine- to twelve-year-old who likes ghost stories, it is a satisfyingly chilling read, beautifully atmospheric and just frightening enough, and part of a series that has become a favourite with young horror fans and with children who discover, through Aveline, that they love a good scare.