APPLE

The family holiday is something to look forward to, but what if you are already twelve years old and going on holiday with your immediate family for the first time? And what if one important member of the family is not there - except in everyone's memories and emotions?

Victoria Darwen finds herself in just such a situation and, although her father and older brother do their best to help, they have their own lives and experiences to manage as well.

Everything a person could wish for on holiday is at her family's disposal: a nice, old house in a British seaside resort, a yappy dog next door and a kind-hearted neighbour just down the hill, but "family" and emotions complicate things. And not just that. The house - or, at least, the land around it - has some interesting history that soon begins to intrude into Victoria's everyday life.

Is she experiencing something "supernatural" or are her heightened emotions making her see things in a particular way?

Whatever the truth may be, she finds herself having to cope with it by herself - at least until a little help comes from a slightly unexpected source.

APPLE is simply about an ordinary girl, centred on everyday events and emotions, but pressure is generated by something that may be supernatural or may just be the projection of the stresses and strains caused as we interact with each other and the world we live in.

Young readers aged 12+ will relate to the central character and be intrigued as they try to work out what's real and what is imagined in this atmospheric read.