Only Ollie and two of her classmates heed the bus driver's warning. At nightfall they'll come for the rest of you.' Nightfall is, indeed, fast descending when Ollie's previously broken digital wristwatch, a keepsake reminder of better times, begins a startling countdown and delivers a terrifying message: RUN. But the strange bus driver has some advice for the kids left behind in his care: 'Best get moving. On the way home, the school bus breaks down, sending their teacher back to the farm for help. Could it be the story about the smiling man is true? Ollie doesn't have too long to think about the answer to that. There she stumbles upon the graves of the very people she's been reading about. Ollie is captivated by the tale until her school trip the next day to Smoke Hollow, a local farm with a haunting history all its own. As she begins to read the slender volume, Ollie discovers a chilling story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who both loved her, and a peculiar deal made with 'the smiling man,' a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price. So when she happens upon a crazed woman at the river threatening to throw a book into the water, Ollie doesn't think-she just acts, stealing the book and running away. For fans of Mary Downing Hahn and Goosebumps, Small Spaces by Katherine Arden is a must-read.īook reviewed by Julie J., Assistant Head of Youth ServicesĬategories: For Grades 4-6 Picks by Julie J.New York Times bestselling adult author of The Bear and the Nightingale makes her middle grade debut with a creepy, spellbinding ghost story destined to become a classic.Īfter suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie only finds solace in books. It is the story of two brothers, the girl they love, and a bargain they’ve made with a sinister figure known only as “the smiling man.” Ollie dismisses it as a made up ghost story, until a field trip to Misty Valley Farm-the location of the story-ends in a broken down bus and a warning on her previously broken digital watch to “RUN.” Can Ollie help save her classmates from the horrors lurking in the woods? Maybe-if she remembers to stick to small spaces until sunrise.

Ollie, a lover of books, steals it from the woman, and finds the story within is one she can’t put down.

This is the warning that 11 year old Olivia “Ollie” Adler gets from a distraught woman trying desperately to throw a book in the river. “Avoid large places at night-keep to small.”

Katherine arden small spaces book 4