![]() ![]() But not before the woman can warn her to, "Avoid large places at night. But, when she sees a distraught woman at her favorite spot for solitude - the swimming hole near the Lethe River - talking to herself and on the verge of throwing a book into the water, Ollie steals the book, titled Small Spaces, and rides off on her bike. She has also become a loner, avoiding everyone when she can, tending to a trauma that is not fully revealed until well into the story. Ollie is a voracious reader, competitive chess player and pitcher with a great arm and a powerful sense of justice who isn't afraid to throw a rock now and then. Arden does a masterful job of bringing the feeling fall in New England, both the beauty of the changing leaves and sweater weather, and the bleak barrenness of impending winter. When we first meet her, she is in math class trying, like a cat, to catch the "last warm sun of the year" as it slants through the sugar maples and into her classroom. ![]() Olivia "Ollie" Arden is a sixth grader in East Evansburg, Vermont, living in a colorful house with her colorfully creative father who knits, bakes, paints and more. Arden spends a generous amount of time with the protagonist and the setting for this story, both of which are superb. ![]()
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