Here is a second recommendation for the Halloween/Half Term season, although it could equally be enjoyed at any time. It is an easy, but most entertaining read for children of about 9 upwards, short chapters making it particularly accessible. It would be a great book for adults to share with or read aloud to children too; the stuff of spooky mystery rather than real nightmare.
Cover: Micaela Alcaino
I see deal people
Protagonist, Autumn, has the ability to see and hear ghosts, although she often finds their intrusion into her daily life more annoying than anything, There seem to be rather a lot of them around her London home and their quirky characters are often persistently demanding of her attention.This is not a totally original scenario in children’s fiction, but here it is amusingly and entertainingly handled. Autumn does have one particular ‘friend’ amongst the ghosts, Jack, an erstwhile chimney sweep, who she summons with a particular playing card. This gives her a confidant whilst early stages of what is to be an intriguing mystery start to evolve, helping to open up the thoughts and feelings of a vividly drawn and engaging main character.
Stones and ghosts
However, it is when, at the behest of her deceased father, Autumn has to move to, Imber, a very strange little island off the coast of Cornwall, that the originality and richness of this story really starts to emerge. Local legend has it that the island is ‘Wrong to its bones.’ However, for Amber, its mysteries seem to be as much associated with stones as bones. Her father left her what turns out to be a witch stone (a sea pebble with a hole right through), and it seems to have rather mystical associations, a kind of small cousin to henges, monoliths and stone circles. It is a thing of the past as well as of the present, a ghost of a stone. There is much strange singing of folk-type songs in Imber too and other weird and rather intriguing shenanigans. As it develops, this becomes one of those stories that effectively draw in resonances with our deep past, as well as the personal past of Amber and her father. It is all most intriguing. Emily Randall-Jones’ conjuring of the island and its people is rooted and vivid, there is magic here.There is the ever presence of the sea too and, as the narrative proceeds, the emphasis subtly switches to deeper and darker mysteries. Everything climaxes in a terrific storm of wickedness and enchantments, of songs and stones and ghosts. Neither people nor events are altogether what they seemed and the author spins her sea spells wonderfully.
Imagine this
This is a book with no pretensions to change our planet or even individual lives, but it is wonderful, escapist entertainment, rich food for the imagination, and sometimes that is exactly what children want and need. The Witch-Stone Ghosts is an assured debut. There were times when it reminded me a little of early Catherine Doyle (in a very good way). It is hard to tell whether this title will be a stand-alone or the first of a sequence. But either way I am sure there will soon be many children looking forward eagerly to Emily Randall-Jones’ next book.