“Avoid large places at night—keep to small.”

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. Ollie, a lover of books, steals it from the woman, and finds the story within is one she can’t put down. 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. For fans of Mary Downing Hahn and Goosebumps, Small Spaces by Katherine Arden is a must-read.

Book reviewed by Julie J., Assistant Head of Youth Services