I entered this creepy series on the second book, Dead Voices, but I'm glad I went back and read the first, Small Spaces. It's soooo good!
Eleven-year-old Olivia Adler can't stand to watch the 6th grade boys taunt the new girl in school, Coco, when they take her journal from her, so she beans Brian on the head with a rock to get them to stop.
She pedals outta the school yard as fast as she can to avoid getting caught by the school librarian, and ends up at her favorite swimming hole. It's October and it's her cool spot. But someone else is already there, a strange woman throwing away a book and muttering nonsense about "keeping to small spaces." Then Ollie does her second rash act of the day -- she snatches the book from the woman before she can drown it in the water and again, pedals as fast as she can away from the woman.
When it comes time to take the school Fall field trip to Misty Valley Farm, Brian covers for Ollie in the Principal's office, saying the rock hit him "accidentally." And Coco? Ah, suddenly, Ollie's got a seat partner on the bus, when all she really wants to do is read the book she rescued from the drink -- Small Spaces. It's creepy, about a Smiling Man who resurrects a man's dead brother and ... but Coco wants to talk and Ollie can't read very far.
When they get to the farm, guess what? The owner is the same woman Ollie encountered at her swimming hole, and she doesn't really recognize Ollie. They learn the farm was the scene of a horrific fire in a schoolhouse and no one survived, no bodies were ever found. Plus, the whole place is weirdville, with creepy scarecrows with creepy smiles on their faces dotting the fields.
They learn the story of the original farm's owners, two brothers who loved one woman, and the Smiling Man, who brought one of them back to life at the other's behest. The bus driver delivers all sorts of creepy clues to Ollie, but she doesn't understand what he's trying to tell her, and she suspects he may be the Smiling Man trying to freak her out. (He's not.)
Both times, Seth, the farm's kindly "farm hand," interrupts and rescues Ollie from the driver's ramblings.
Then on the way home, the bus breaks down. Super close to dusk. And Coco has done the math. She's good at math. The variables add up to ... well, nothing good. She hightails it out of the bus, with Coco and Brian in tow, into the forest to find ... a small place to hide. Right before the scarecrows descend.
If I say any more, I'll end up giving away the awesome twists that you'll so very much enjoy reading. Just know, the Smiling Man is a formidable adversary, and I'm fairly certain I never took a school field trip this deadly! A great Halloween read.
