Phil Hickes’s The Vanishing of Aveline Jones is a properly spooky mystery for 9 year olds about a girl determined to find out what happened to the uncle who disappeared when she was two.<\/p>\n
Ten years ago, one December, Aveline’s Uncle Rowan went out and never came back. Now Aunt Lilian and Aveline’s mum have decided it’s finally time to put his house on the market. So it’s off to the village of Scarbury for the Christmas holidays, with her friend Harold in tow.<\/p>\n
Aveline hasn’t told the grown-ups, but she’s there to solve a mystery.<\/p>\n
The house is cold and gloomy, and one door is always locked. Then, in the middle of the night, a creak on the stairs leads Aveline to a key hidden under the carpet (and that’s when things get REALLY creepy).<\/p>\n
Behind the door is Uncle Rowan’s study. It’s crammed with maps, crystals and newspaper cuttings about people who went missing near a prehistoric burial mound half a mile away. In a drawer there’s a pile of cassette tapes. When Aveline and Harold press play, they hear Uncle Rowan trying to talk to the spirits.<\/p>\n
Worth knowing before you hand it over. This one really leans into the scary. There’s a hunched figure on the stairs in the dark, a s\u00e9ance on tape and old stories of lights that lure travellers into bogs to drown. Two schoolgirls vanished near the barrow years ago and were never found. If your reader is easily frightened at bedtime, you might want to read the first few chapters together.<\/p>\n
For a child who loves a shiver, though, it’s brilliant. Harold is the perfect sidekick, full of terrible jokes, and his secret knock code is a lovely bit of silliness in the middle of all the dread.<\/p>\n
There’s real warmth here too. Aveline can see her mum and her aunt are both sad in their own ways, and she keeps the s\u00e9ance tapes to herself so they won’t be hurt. Aunt Lilian is sharp and bossy, but she’s missing her little brother more than she lets on.<\/p>\n
Little bits of old folklore about fairies open some of the chapters. Not the Tinkerbell sort, either! They add to the feeling that something out on that mound doesn’t want to be found.<\/p>\n
This isn’t the first Aveline Jones book, but the story stands on its own. If your reader would rather start at the beginning, The Haunting of Aveline Jones takes her to a freezing seaside town for half-term, where she first meets Harold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Phil Hickes’s The Vanishing of Aveline Jones is a properly spooky mystery for 9 year olds about a girl determined to find out what happened to the uncle who disappeared when she was two. Ten years ago, one December, Aveline’s Uncle Rowan went out and never came back. Now Aunt Lilian and Aveline’s mum have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13366,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":9113,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Haunting of Aveline Jones","lr_seo_hook":"A locked study, a key under the stair carpet and a s\u00e9ance on cassette tape."},"book_tag":[22],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[795],"class_list":["post-9502","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-mystery-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-phil-hickes"],"yoast_title":"The Vanishing of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A locked study, a key under the stair carpet and a s\u00e9ance on cassette tape. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n