Small Spaces

July 15, 2018
A girl steals a book and is swept up in its eerie origins. It's October in East Evansburg, Vermont, and Olivia "Ollie" Adler finds herself distracted from her sixth-grade lessons. She's reeling from the pain of her mother's absence, but she'd rather bottle it up than talk about it. Instead, Ollie escapes into books and reads them at her secret swimming hole. One day, a strange woman attempts to cast a book titled Small Spaces into the water. Ollie steals the book and is given a warning: "Avoid large places at night....Keep to small." Soon she is wrapped up in the book's haunting story of loss and a deal made with a being known as "the smiling man." A class field trip to Misty Valley Farm reveals the truth behind Small Spaces. Can Ollie save her classmates from the smiling man? Or will she, too, succumb to the lure of one of his bargains? The characters are sharply drawn, particularly Ollie and her quirky, bighearted father; one secondary character, black, Jamaican-born Brian, stands out in their mostly white community. The slow reveal of Ollie's trauma is achingly poignant (her mother's death isn't confirmed until nearly halfway through the book). Some elements seem less plausible than others (her teacher leaving kids alone with a creepy bus driver, for instance), but novelist for adults Arden's (The Bear and the Nightingale, 2017) middle-grade debut is atmospheric horror at its best. Chillingly tender. (Horror. 8-13)

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August 6, 2018
Eleven-year-old Ollie lives with her big-hearted baking enthusiast father following the tragic death of her mother, and finds respite from her grief through reading. Her circumstances take a supernatural turn when she encounters a frightening woman attempting to throw a book into the river. When Ollie, drawn to the book, takes it, the woman warns Ollie to “avoid large places at night... keep to small.” In its pages, Ollie reads of a long-ago family whose losses led them to make a dreadful pact with a demonic figure known as “the smiling man.” And on a class trip to a dairy farm, Ollie and two classmates—with whom she forms a reluctant connection—learn that the smiling man is very real. Arden (The Bear and the Nightingale) shrouds her Halloween-time story in autumnal mists, introducing a sometimes-crowded cast of ominous figures, from ghosts to shapeshifters and scarecrow minions. Ollie is a relatable heroine who finds strength through trusting in friendship, while her ghostly adventures lead her to learn an important truth: sometimes, the best way to honor the memory of a loved one is by moving forward, bravely, and with love. Ages 10–up. Agent: Paul Lucas, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

Starred review from August 1, 2018
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* Things were already pretty spooky for Ollie after she rescued an antique book from a weeping, maniacal woman, but when the bus taking her and her classmates home from a school trip to a farm stalls in a dense bank of fog next to a field peppered with creepy scarecrows, it's clear something otherworldly is going on. Heeding the advice appearing in her late mother's digital watch? RUN ?Ollie and a couple of classmates, Jamaican-born Brian and sensitive Coco, escape to the woods, trying to avoid the terrifying, animated scarecrows and find their way back to the farm, which has an eerie connection to the book, a story about a smiling man who makes deadly bargains. In spare, pithy, and evocative language, Arden skillfully cultivates a vivid sense of atmosphere, from Ollie's cozy, welcoming house to the creeping dread of the kids' journey through the ominous, clattering forest. There are genuinely creepy elements here?scarecrows in relentless pursuit, ghostly beings lurking in abandoned houses, and a truly surprising villain at the center of it all?but Arden doesn't skimp on character development either. Prickly Ollie, who's dealing with the grief of losing her mother, softens toward Brian and Coco, who are each gradually rounded out as well. With a tantalizing pace and palpable suspense, all nicely grounded in realistic emotions, this well-wrought spine-tingler is destined to be a hit (just makes sure the lights stay on).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)