Indies Introduce

Middle Grade

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  Olivetti, Allie Millington
  Feiwel & Friends, 9781250326935, March 26, 2024 (Middle Grade)
  

  “Olivetti is my favorite new middle grade novel in years. A lovable introvert, a typewriter with a lot to say, and an irresistible mystery come together to create a one of a kind reading experience. This book weaves together themes of mental health, family, and magic in ways that are deeply thoughtful and unique. I cannot wait to get this book into the hands of every 10-year-old I know.”

  —Molly Olivo, Child’s Play, Washington, D.C.
  
  

  “Have you ever wondered what your life looks like to someone else? What about something else? How are you perceived, what do they think about the choices you make, and what effects do your actions and the words that you choose to say out loud have on that perception? Meet Olivetti, the typewriter that watches his family with an interest that is both innocent and searingly insightful. His observations are sometimes right and sometimes miss the mark, but are always thoughtful. So when his beloved owner, Beatrice, sells him to a pawn shop, he is confused and hurt by the abrupt change. Alternating between Olivetti’s perspective and the introverted Ernest’s, one of the four children that make up Olivetti’s family, unravel why their mother left, why she sold Olivetti, and discover that sometimes what goes away is not lost for good.”

  —Erin Rivera, The Frugal Frigate, Redlands, CA
  

  “If Where’d You Go Bernadette had a 12-year-old so introverted that his only friends were the dictionaries he memorized looking for mom, along with a new friend from a pawn shop, three siblings, and — oh, a talking typewriter — it’d be this book. Well, not a talking typewriter, but one who types back to you. When Ernest’s mom Beatrice leaves without warning, it is more than Ernest and his family who are devastated — Olivetti the typewriter is as well. Especially when Beatrice unexpectedly sells him to a pawn shop for precisely $126 and promptly skips town. Olivetti knows something is very wrong, and is willing to break the one rule of the typewriter-ly code if it means getting Beatrice and her ’tapestries’ back. This inventive, clever, well-paced middle-grade novel will type its way right into your heart!”

  —Paul Swydan, The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, Acton, MA