Small Spaces
2 journalers for this copy...
I got this creepy-looking softcover from an online seller; the creepy scarecrow on the cover caught my eye.
The story's about a girl who's having trouble reconnecting with life after the tragic loss of her mother. She does intervene to save a classmate from a bully (winning two potential friends in the process, though it takes a while for her to realize this), but still tends to retreat to solitude. On one of her escapes she finds a distraught woman about to throw a book into the river, and as a lover of books she can't let that stand - though the woman insists that it's "part of the bargain" that the book go to the water. Ollie takes the book anyway and dashes off... only to find that the book's the diary of a woman who lived in the area generations back, and whose husband disappeared after making a bargain with "the smiling man" for the life of his missing brother.
All this seems interesting but not sinister - until a school trip to the farm owned by the distraught woman ends with the bus breaking down on an unfamiliar road near a field full of scarecrows! Ollie suspects what's going on and - with some help from her late mother via a digital watch - leads her two new friends to (temporary) safety, but the rest of the kids get taken away by the scarecrows. Ollie's attempts to find a way to save them all lead to some nicely creepy scenes and a rather clever challenge. And I liked the way the three kids each began to learn about and to trust each other.
(There's a sequel, Dead Voices, which I may hunt up.)
The story's about a girl who's having trouble reconnecting with life after the tragic loss of her mother. She does intervene to save a classmate from a bully (winning two potential friends in the process, though it takes a while for her to realize this), but still tends to retreat to solitude. On one of her escapes she finds a distraught woman about to throw a book into the river, and as a lover of books she can't let that stand - though the woman insists that it's "part of the bargain" that the book go to the water. Ollie takes the book anyway and dashes off... only to find that the book's the diary of a woman who lived in the area generations back, and whose husband disappeared after making a bargain with "the smiling man" for the life of his missing brother.
All this seems interesting but not sinister - until a school trip to the farm owned by the distraught woman ends with the bus breaking down on an unfamiliar road near a field full of scarecrows! Ollie suspects what's going on and - with some help from her late mother via a digital watch - leads her two new friends to (temporary) safety, but the rest of the kids get taken away by the scarecrows. Ollie's attempts to find a way to save them all lead to some nicely creepy scenes and a rather clever challenge. And I liked the way the three kids each began to learn about and to trust each other.
(There's a sequel, Dead Voices, which I may hunt up.)
Journal Entry 2 by 
GoryDetails
at Pickity Place (See Notes For Details) in Mason, New Hampshire USA on Wednesday, October 28, 2020
GoryDetails at Pickity Place (See Notes For Details) in Mason, New Hampshire USA on Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Released 3 yrs ago (10/28/2020 UTC) at Pickity Place (See Notes For Details) in Mason, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.It's a chilly, rainy day, so I left this book inside the little herb-drying shack (it's in the background of the photo) on the grounds of Pickity Place, a marvelous and unique herb-based restaurant/gift shop/greenhouse. Hope someone enjoys it!
[See other recent releases in NH here.]
*** Released for the 2020 Spooktacular October challenge. ***
This book was so good that now it's my favorite book I totally recommend.
