Aveline is forced to spend half term visiting her strict and formal Aunt Lilian in the little coastal town of Malmouth, days of boredom await her and she uses her love of ghost stories to pass the time finding a very old one full of tales, in a second hand bookshop where she meets shy and messy haired Harold and his Great Uncle. If there was ever a recipe for the perfect middle-grade scary story, then The Haunting of Aveline Jones has followed it to a tee. Take one eerie and miserable seaside town, a girl with a penchant for ghost stories, and a generous helping of things that go bump in the night, and you have all the ingredients you need to conjure up a tale that will have you well and truly spooked. Aveline has to spend the Autumn Half Term holiday with her aunt who she doesn't know that well, in her seaside town in Cornwall. Seaside towns in winter can be rather dreary and desolate places where it feels like it just rains all the time, and Malmouth is rather like that.

Aveline is forced to stay with her Aunt in the lead-up to Halloween in a small coastal village. While there, Aveline comes across a book of ghost stories that used to belong to a girl who went missing over thirty years before. With spooky happenings, Aveline's life is then put into mortal danger when it appears a vengeful ghost may want her for her own. Just in time for Halloween, our Author of the Week is releasing his first scary story, The Haunting of Aveline Jones, which is all about a young girl who is fascinated by ghost stories. When she comes across a book that once belonged to Primrose Penberthy, who mysteriously went missing, she decides to investigate her disappearance... Aveline Jones is forced to stay with her uptight Aunt in a spooky seaside town in October. Storms, creepy scarecrows and a strange boy who likes eating chips all await. Aveline can't think of anything worse. Until she finds a book, a book of ghost stories, that belonged to a girl. A girl who went missing over 30 years ago. Cue a mystery to be solved... I did really like the relationship between Aveline, Harold and his great uncle the bookshop owner. He's eccentric enough to come off as harmless and good company rather than weird. Harold was also developing into a good friend before the story ended too. However, I found the familial relationship between Aveline and her aunt a bit stiff and unnatural - a bit like an extension of her personality. It doesn't ever seem to thaw, even though the narrative tries really hard to get them to build up some kind of relationship. It just ended up still feeling standoffish to me.

Author Guy Bass introduces SCRAP, about one robot who tried to protect the humans on his planet against an army of robots. Now the humans need his...

It is a very exciting book- you really can't put it down because you are so drawn into the story, you have to know what happens next. Very atmospheric, particularly the descriptions of the seaside town in Autumn, the emptiness of the streets now the tourists have gone. But it is not for the fainthearted or easily spooked and definitely not something to read just before bedtime. I will be reading the second book, but only in daylight! I enjoyed this read just as much as I did the first time around. I was reminded of how much I liked Ghost Girl and Book Boy, and how perfectly the illustrations complimented the story. I appreciated the connection between the creepy scarecrows and the crossed out story in Aveline’s book more this time around. I just loved Aveline, she is a bookworm like me and can get totally lost in books. Not only that, but she also loves ghost stories, which I have been doing since I was small. I just love bookworms in stories. I can often relate to them. Next to the bookworm stuff, Aveline was also a wonderful and brave character. She went on to search for Primrose despite the scary things happening to her and in the end even tried to do something (which was a bit stupid but mostly brave) for Primrose. Its half term (and halloween) when Aveline arrives in the seaside town of Malmouth to stay with her Aunt. A visit to the local bookshop leads Aveline to discover some haunting local folklore that is tied up with the disapperance of a young girl called Primrose Penberthy. As Aveline begins to investigate the mysterious disapperance of Primrose she is drawn into a dark and haunting tale, and as the stormy weather stirs so does a restless spirit from the depths of the sea....Aveline Jones gets sent to stay with her aunt in the Cornish town of Malmouth. Aveline loves ghost stories, so the first thing she does is visit the local bookshop and buys a book of ghost stories. But something strange is happening. The book belonged to a girl who disappeared more than 30 years before and there is a strange ghost story that seems somehow connected. Aveline decides to investigate and with her new friend Harold, begins to uncover something creepy going on. Someone, or something, is out there and it is looking for Aveline…. With a spooky feel to the story as soon as it starts, Aveline gets swept up in a mystery that she is determined to solve despite her love of ghost stories actually making her quite scared. Aveline Jones loves reading ghost stories, so a dreary half-term becomes much more exciting when she discovers a spooky old book. Not only are the stories spine-tingling, but it once belonged to Primrose Penberthy, who vanished mysteriously, never to be seen again. Intrigued, Aveline decides to investigate Primrose's disappearance. Harold and his uncle were great characters. Harold took me a bit to get used to, but I loved his uncle. He was sweet, kind, and knew his stuff. And yes, he could win a gold medal for talking. 😛 insert gif of the Other Mother from the movie "Coraline", saying the words "You Know I Love You" here]

Holding that description in mind; Aveline watches the ghost of Cora Poole climb the rungs of a ladder out of the water seeking to kidnap children to replace those that were killed in the ocean. The ghost of Primrose appears to help Aveline hide from the creeping tendons of Cora Poole as she slinks through the properties around the village seeking an unsuspecting child. When we are certain that Aveline is about to be dragged into the ocean blue by the vice grip of a parasitic corpse; Aveline is rescued by Mr. Lieberman’s great-nephew, Harold. Aveline loves reading ghost stories, so a dreary half-term becomes much more exciting when she discovers a spooky old book. Not only are the stories spine-tingling, but it belonged to a girl called Primrose Penberthy, who vanished mysteriously, never to be seen again. Intrigued, Aveline decides to investigate Primrose’s disappearance, with some help from her new friend, Harold. Before we get to Primrose’s diary, we already see little snippets of it at the end of each chapter and I can tell you I was a big fan as they gave some good goosebumps! Later on we get more diary entries and I just loved reading them. They gave more insight to the whole situation (and what the story may be about), but also showed a girl who knew something was wrong and was trying hard to have people believe her.I had a laugh that our girl went to the police.. for a ghost. Yep. And she was surprised they didn’t take her seriously, um what did you think would happen?