"Atmospheric horror at its best.
Chillingly tender." Kirkus
School is torture for Olivia. She has an intelligence well beyond her classmates in Grade Seven. This is not, however, the cause of her sadness. She has a desperate need to keep away from sympathy, from those knowing looks. Her dad is sad too. His way of coping is to cook. He makes delicious treats for Ollie as a way to show his love but Ollie cannot cope with this either.
"Now he was going to be understanding. She hated understanding voice as much as she hated sympathy face."
Ollie seeks solace down at the swimming hole. The autumn colours are bright and the sunshine is warm. She is surprised to find someone is already there. A woman holding a book which she appears to be intending to throw into the creek. Ollie is horrified. She reaches out and grabs the book.
"Listen to me ... I'm going to tell you one thing, because I'm not a bad person. I just didn't have a choice. I'll give you some advice, and you give me the book. ... 'Avoid large places at night,' the woman said. 'Keep to small."
When Ollie gets home she begins to read this strange book. It recounts events of the past when two brothers made a deal with the Smiling Man. These events are connected with a local farm and in the coming days the whole class will visit this farm and Ollie will have to think fast, remember the advice about small spaces and rely on new friends in order to survive the ordeal that awaits her.
Just one more thing - you may never look at a scarecrow in quite the same way ever again after you read this book!
Image source: Instructions to make this scarecrow Instructables Craft
I think we all love a scary book - don't we? Nothing too frightening but a story that gives you a shiver or too can be good. I didn't know anything about Small Spaces except I had seen the cover on a few book lists. When I picked it up in a book store the comment on the back cover made me laugh out loud:
"This book scared the snot out of me. Fast-paced and spinetinglingly delightful." Jonathan Auxier.
I really loved Ollie's dad. He has filled their house with colours and he cooks the most delicious food. Luckily for Ollie, on the day of the excursion, he fills her lunch box. I sighed a huge sigh of relief when, the midst of all the terror, Ollie had food to share with Coco and Brian.
"He reached into the back seat and thrust her lunch box out the window. Ollie undid the clasps and peered into the depths. Carrot sticks and peanut butter cookies - way too many of both - and a very large turkey sandwich, cut in quarters on home made bread. Maple granola, with sugared walnuts. A chocolate chip muffin. Dad really must have baked all night."
Good news this is a fairly new book - well newish here in Australia. It was published in 2018. My paperback copy arrived in the bookshop in July 2019. Did you know you can discover this from the price sticker in some shops - I like to think about books sitting on a shelf waiting for a reader - like me! I highly recommend this book for 11+. It reminded me of His Name was Walter in the way both books contain a book within a book.
In her review below Betsy Bird talks about the brilliance of the first page in this book. You can hear that page in this audio sample.
A good horror novel for kids shouldn’t just feel increasingly creepy. There has to be something truly terrible at its core that is going to get you and do something unspeakable to you. If the threat isn’t real, the tension isn’t going to work. But don’t worry. In this book the threat is real, the bad guy is terrifying, and the tension . . . well, let’s just say you could cut it with a knife hanging off of a smiling scarecrow’s arm. Elizabeth Bird School Library Journal
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