Small Spaces
Author: Arden, Katherine
ISBN: 9780241795071
Publisher: Penguin UK
Year first published: 25 Nov 2025
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback / softback
Plt;bPgt;The spellbindingly creepy middle grade debut of the Plt;iPgt;New York TimesPlt;/iPgt; and Plt;iPgt;Sunday TimesPlt;/iPgt; bestselling author of Plt;iPgt;The Bear and the NightingalePlt;/iPgt;, Katherine ArdenPlt;/bPgt;
Plt;bPgt;P#8216;DonP#39;t panic. ThatP#39;s the first rule of survival. Never panic.P#8217;Plt;/bPgt;Plt;BRPgt;Plt;BRPgt;Simple enough P#8211; until your school trip turns into a waking nightmare.Plt;BRPgt;Plt;BRPgt;After rescuing a book from the river, eleven-year-old Ollie discovers an unsettling ghost story about the sinister Smiling Man, a fiendish trickster whoP#8217;ll grant any wish P#8211; for a price. Creepy, but itP#8217;s just a story P#8230;Plt;BRPgt;Plt;BRPgt;But when Ollie finds graves bearing the charactersP#8217; names on a school trip to a farm, that story begins to feel terrifyingly real. And then the bus breaks down on the way home. And darkness starts to fall. And the scarecrows are watching. But itP#8217;s the bus driver who sends Ollie and her friends, Coco and Brian, scrambling into the woods: P#8216;Best get moving,P#8217; he said, ominously. P#8216;At nightfall theyP#8217;ll come for the rest of you.P#8217;Plt;BRPgt;Plt;BRPgt;As they work to unravel a hundred-year-old mystery and save their classmates from the Smiling Man, theyP#8217;ll need quick thinking and even quicker feet if theyP#8217;re going to survive.Plt;BRPgt;Plt;BRPgt;Plt;iPgt;Full of slow-burning tension, gorgeously atmospheric writing and fantastically realised characters, this is quality-commercial fiction at its best: brilliant storytelling that feels accessible both in execution and packaging.Plt;/iPgt;
ISBN: 9780241795071
Publisher: Penguin UK
Year first published: 25 Nov 2025
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback / softback
Plt;bPgt;The spellbindingly creepy middle grade debut of the Plt;iPgt;New York TimesPlt;/iPgt; and Plt;iPgt;Sunday TimesPlt;/iPgt; bestselling author of Plt;iPgt;The Bear and the NightingalePlt;/iPgt;, Katherine ArdenPlt;/bPgt;
Plt;bPgt;P#8216;DonP#39;t panic. ThatP#39;s the first rule of survival. Never panic.P#8217;Plt;/bPgt;Plt;BRPgt;Plt;BRPgt;Simple enough P#8211; until your school trip turns into a waking nightmare.Plt;BRPgt;Plt;BRPgt;After rescuing a book from the river, eleven-year-old Ollie discovers an unsettling ghost story about the sinister Smiling Man, a fiendish trickster whoP#8217;ll grant any wish P#8211; for a price. Creepy, but itP#8217;s just a story P#8230;Plt;BRPgt;Plt;BRPgt;But when Ollie finds graves bearing the charactersP#8217; names on a school trip to a farm, that story begins to feel terrifyingly real. And then the bus breaks down on the way home. And darkness starts to fall. And the scarecrows are watching. But itP#8217;s the bus driver who sends Ollie and her friends, Coco and Brian, scrambling into the woods: P#8216;Best get moving,P#8217; he said, ominously. P#8216;At nightfall theyP#8217;ll come for the rest of you.P#8217;Plt;BRPgt;Plt;BRPgt;As they work to unravel a hundred-year-old mystery and save their classmates from the Smiling Man, theyP#8217;ll need quick thinking and even quicker feet if theyP#8217;re going to survive.Plt;BRPgt;Plt;BRPgt;Plt;iPgt;Full of slow-burning tension, gorgeously atmospheric writing and fantastically realised characters, this is quality-commercial fiction at its best: brilliant storytelling that feels accessible both in execution and packaging.Plt;/iPgt;
