Allie Millington’s Olivetti may have been written for young people, but it’s really for readers who want to be drawn into a beautiful story of a family that falls apart, and the typewriter that tries to save them. If the premise sounds odd, it works.

Olivetti knew the Brindles when Felix and Beatrice were still dating, and Felix’ present of a typewriter was for the woman who wanted to write. Olivetti knew her secrets, and her stories, and memories. It was there when the four Brindle children came along. And, it sat on Beatrice’s desk, forgotten, when Felix bought her a laptop. And, it felt forsaken and alone when Beatrice, with tears in her eyes, abandoned Olivetti at a pawn shop for one hundred and twenty-six dollars.

The third Brindle child, Ernest, felt the same way, alone and abandoned after “Everything That Happened”. The twelve-year-old took his dictionaries to the roof, and read them to find space away from the rest of the family. He had no friends, felt isolated in the family, and went to a therapist. But, he also hadn’t spoken to his mother for a week when she and Olivetti disappeared.

Ernest was posting “Missing” posters of his mother when Quinn, the dumpster-diving daughter of the owner of Heartland Pawn Shop tells him she saw his mother pawning a typewriter. The two young people are stunned when Olivetti reveals a typewriter’s secret. It can communicate, and it holds all Beatrice’s memories that were typed on the machine.

Who is it that drags the others into the search for Beatrice? Is it Quinn, Olivetti, or Ernest? Ernest kept secrets, but, “All the time I was trying to protect myself, but it just meant everyone else ended up hurt.”

Olivetti is a marvelous book about learning to be a friend, a family that realizes it must pull together to stay together, and fear. There’s so much loneliness and fear in this book. It’s a moving story of “Everything That Happened.”

Allie Millington’s website is https://www.alliemillingtonbooks.com/

Olivetti by Allie Millington. Feiwel & Friends, 2024. ISBN 9781250326935 (hardcover), 250p.

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