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Olivetti
By Allie Millington
Feiwel and Friends
Ages 9 to 99
Most kids these days approach computers, cellphones and other digital devices with a comfort level their parents and grandparents probably envy. Conversely, when faced with such things as a manual typewriter or a rotary phone, youngsters may be stumped. It’s fitting, therefore, that Allie Millington’s new middle-grade novel (aimed by the publisher at eight- to 12-year-olds but, in my opinion, suited to a much broader age group) begins by admitting the reader might have “never spoken to a typewriter before” and “never seen a typewriter before, either.”

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Enter the Brindle family: father Felix used an Olivetti Lettera 22 to propose to Beatrice, who not only said “forever” but embraced the typewriter as a way to record her innermost thoughts and to teach their four children — Ezra, Adalyn, Ernest and Arlo — to spell. All four had distinct personalities and the entire family found pleasure in storytelling and joint activities, although 12-year-old Ernest was happiest when left to his own devices, stealing away to the roof of their apartment building with a thick, red dictionary in hand. Ernest loved words, and was enamoured with his Oxford English Dictionary collection.

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Over the years, the typewriter’s place on Beatrice’s desk was invaded by piles of books, incurring Olivetti’s disdain. “If there is one thing all typewriters agree on,” he tells us in one of his chapters (alternating with those narrated by Ernest), “it is the insufferable nature of books.” His not-so-subtle criticism of books runs throughout this novel as a welcome thread of humour in a story that may cause readers’ eyes to well up occasionally. Not only does a laptop eventually enter the Brindle household, but it totally supplants Olivetti’s position on Beatrice’s desk. By Chapter 5, her Tapestries, pages of typed words, lands in a trash bin; Olivetti himself is packed in his case and sold at a pawn shop for $126; and Beatrice has left home.

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And by then, on Page 22 of this 246-page story, the reader has encountered the first reference to a mysterious event — the Everything That Happened — that threw every member of the Brindle family for a loop years earlier, and now upends their carefully cultivated peace of mind. Beatrice has gone missing, and the Brindles — led by Ernest and his new friend Quinn, daughter of the pawn shop owner — set out to find her. Their unlikely ally in this venture is Olivetti, who breaks the strict “typewriterly code — to never let what has been typed into us back out. Communication with humans is strictly forbidden.” He decides “some humans are worth breaking the rules for” and he only needs one of them to listen.

Ernest turns out to be that one. “Do not be alarmed” (in a black typewriterly font) is the first message Olivetti sends him, causing the boy to scream, very much alarmed. The rest of the story, beautifully written, is well worth reading.

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