Small Spaces by Katherine Arden - ESSENTIAL

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden, 218 pages.  Putnam, 2018.  $17.  

Content: Language: G (1 swear); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG.  

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS – ESSENTIAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH  

Ollie, 11yo, misses her mother so much that she avoids life by reading books.  One day on her way home from school, after a particularly trying day, Ollie happens upon a woman mumbling nonsense and trying to throw a book into the river.  Ollie grabs the book from the woman and races home.  Ollie quickly falls into the book about two brothers who love the same woman and the ghost story that follows.  What Ollie doesn’t realize is that she will fall into the same ghost story with her schoolmates.  

This book is creepy fun.  I couldn’t put it down and loved Ollie and her courage.  Although the book is scary, it’s clean and has great character development that emphasizes friendship, love and moving on.  Such a fun read!  

C. Peterson