Olivetti by Allie Millington

In this uniquely crafted story, a typewriter, a boy and his best friend join up to find his missing mother. The story is told in the alternating voices of Olivetti, a typewriter and twelve-year-old Ernest Brindle, whose mother has suddenly gone missing.

The story begins with the introduction of Olivetti, a typewriter who has lived with the Brindle family for years. Twelve-year-old Ernest Brindle lives with his mother, Beatrice, his father Felix, his older brother Ezra, older sister Adalyn and his younger brother, Arlo. Ezra loves working out, Arlo has his frogs Chives and Pickles, and Ernest carries around a dictionary. They live in the ground floor apartment in a building called Valley View in San Francisco. 

Olivetti came to the Brindles years ago in a cardboard box and sat on Beatrice's desk until her husband,  Felix purchased a laptop for her. Three of the Brindle children had learned to spell using Olivetti rather than pen and paper. Olivetti knew three of the Brindles by their fingers and their touch. But he didn't know Ernest because he spent his time on  the roof with his red dictionary. With the arrival of the laptop, they often fought over it rather than the typewriter. 

One evening, while the Brindles were all out doing their own thing, Olivetti sees Beatrice answer her phone and rush out of the apartment. The next day she wakes early, crying. As she paces the apartment, Beatrice notices Olivetti and packs him into his carrying case. She packs her typewritten stories, memories and thoughts which she has named Tapestries into a garbage bag and throws them out. At the Heartland Pawn Shop, a visibly upset Beatrice sells Olivetti for one hundred twenty-six dollars.  

Later in the morning, the rest of the Brindle family start their day with Ernest retreating, as usual to the roof with his dictionary. When it's time to leave for school, Arlo gets Ernest from the rooftop. Inside  they hear their father, Adalyn and Ezra arguing about who will take Ernest to a new doctor, Dr. Branson, after school. Ernest hasn't spoken to his mother in seven days, after his last appointment with a different therapist. His father notes that someone has to take Ernest because Beatrice has left unusually early and has also forgotten her phone. That day while Ernest is in the middle of his presentation in Mrs. Fawn's class on the history of the dictionary, he is interrupted by Mr. Robles, the school principal. At the office, Ernest learns from his father that his mother has gone missing.

At home, Ernest and his family are in shock as they struggle to deal the Beatrice's disappearance. They spend a day putting up missing person posters. When Ernest puts up a poster outside the Heartland Pawn Shop, a girl from the shop tells him Beatrice was in the previous morning and sold them a typewriter. She tells Ernest the woman seemed very upset and sold the typewriter for a specific price. The Brindles meet with Mr. Corrie, the pawn shop owner and his daughter Quinn. It soon becomes apparent to the police that Beatrice left of her own accord.

The Brindles are upset and angry that their mother would simply leave after the "Everything That Happened".  Ernest's father tells them they must simply wait to hear from her and must carry on with their lives. But Ernest is wracked with guilt, believing that their mother may have left because of him and his refusal to deal with the "Everything That Happened" event. This leads him back to the pawn shop and his mother's typewriter. But Olivetti is no ordinary typewriter. With the help of Olivetti and his new friend, Quinn, Ernest works to solve the mystery of his mother's disappearance and in doing so finds acceptance, forgiveness and healing.

Discussion

Olivetti is a quirky, touching story about a boy struggling to cope with his mother's illness - referred to as the "Everything That Happened". Readers will not initially know why Ernest won't talk to his mother, what the "Everything That Happened" is, nor why his mother left. But as Ernest, Olivetti and Quinn work together, the backstory is revealed.

Most important to this is Olivetti, a typewriter that can communicate. Young readers who likely have never used a typewriter, will not know that Olivetti was a brand of typewriters first made in Turin, Italy in 1911. Olivetti typewriters were produced until 1994 when personal computers began to take over the market. The author uses the literary device of personification, assigning to the typewriter emotions and thoughts. It's a quaint and interesting plot device that makes this novel stand out. 

As the opening narrator, Olivetti states that Beatrice Brindle used him to record all her memories, poems and thoughts through the years on pages she called her Tapestries. He reveals that typewriters keep every word given to them and are "...a protector of memories inside... Decades' worth of words."  Olivetti also reveals that typewriters speak, using their keys to spell words into the air. This language can only be understood by other typewriters. In the pawn shop, Olivetti meets Remi, a 1947 Remington Deluxe Model 5, who is old and no longer works well. They strike up a friendship and Olivetti learns that Remi hasn't been used in years and is decline.

Olivetti also reveals that there is a typewriter code, "...to never let what has been typed into us back out. Communication with humans is strictly forbidden." Olivetti knows that breaking this code is unheard of  but when he learns that Beatrice has vanished,  he is determined to help the Brindles find her. To do that means breaking the typewriter code and "talking" to twelve-year-old Ernest Brindle. 

Ernest struggled with his mother's cancer diagnosis years ago. In his attempt to understand what was happening he turned to reading the Oxford Dictionary and eventually, on his ninth birthday requested the Physician's Desk Reference. He withdrew, often retreating to the rooftop of their apartment building to be alone. He's been to numerous therapists to help him with "Everything That Happened" without much success. The "Everything That Happened" was what Ernest was trying to forget. He also is not keen to make friends or meet new people because "Once you meet people, you might get close to them. And once you get close to them, you might lose them for good."  In this way, Ernest can avoid being hurt. He also just wants to forget, to pretend that none of it has happened.

However, it is Ernest who is determined not to sit back and wait for his mother to contact them, as his father has suggested. He feels intense guilt over her leaving, wondering if he's responsible. "What if that reason was me? The question lodged in m throat. The longer it stayed there, blocking my air, the more it seemed like the only thing that made sense. Mom spent the last few months worried about me. Taking me to therapists. Making me try new things. But maybe she got tired of trying. Maybe she got tired of me." It is Ernest who sets in motion the events that lead to his family finding Beatrice. In retrieving Olivetti, he uncovers the unusual typewriter's ability to communicate and finds a new friend in the pawn shop owner's daughter, Quinn.

The quest to find Ernest's mother draws him and Quinn into a friendship. Like Ernest, Quinn also believes she is responsible, in this case, for her parent's divorce. Over time, she has come to realize it wasn't her fault. "I know what it feels like to lose someone and not know now to get them back." With Quinn's help, Ernest begins to piece together what has happened to his mother in the days leading up to her leaving. When Ernest learns that his mother left not because of him but because her cancer has returned, he is devastated and angry. If he was to blame, it could be fixed, but with cancer, the outcome is not so certain. In his pain, he strikes out at Quinn. He doesn't want a friend, even though he realizes that Quinn is a true friend when he reads her notes in the pages of his mother's Tapestries. Her diligence tells him that she really cares about finding his mother.

Olivetti is a metaphor for Beatrice's experience in cancer treatment when he is dismantled by the artist Callum Kino. He is taken to Callum's studio warehouse and is placed "...on a long, narrow table surrounded on all sides by sharp, shining tools..." that will be used to take him apart. As this is happening, Olivetti wonders, "...Was this how Beatrice felt, when she had to lie on an operating table?" As Olivetti is examined by Callum, he wonders "Was this how Beatrice felt, during one of her many scans? An object under a microscope?" Even Ernest sees Olivetti's experience as a metaphor for his mother's cancer experience. When he sees Olivetti in Callum's studio as "...a heap of ruins" he realizes how alone and afraid the typewriter must have been, like his mother when she learned of the return of her cancer.

When Ernest loses Olivetti and rushes to the studio to retrieve him, he realizes how much he loves the typewriter and his mother. The loss of Olivetti reminds him of how much he misses and loves her and makes Ernest realize "Everything I was trying not to feel, everything I wanted to ignore..."  Olivetti has forced Ernest to confront both the reality of his mother's illness and his feelings. He has also forced the entire Brindle family to do the same. Beatrice felt she had to face the return of her cancer alone, while Ernest couldn't talk about cancer because that would make it real. Felix busied himself with work to try to forget. The entire Brindle family come to realize they have each other to draw strength from. They are not alone. And that's the main message of this novel: in our struggles and suffering we are not alone. There are always people who want to help.

In the end, Millington provides a satisfying and heartwarming conclusion to her story. Cancer is often a terrifying diagnosis, especially when it involves a parent of young children who do not have the maturity to understand the illness and process their feelings. Life suddenly changes in ways that cannot be predicted. In some ways, Olivetti is a very timely novel, given the cancer diagnosis of the Princess of Wales, who has very young children and her very public acknowledgement. Millington has taken a sensitive topic and treated with with sensitivity while infusing a touch of magical realism.

Book Details:

Olivetti by Allie Millington
New York: Feiwel and Friends     2024
249 pp.

Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Lidia Janina Durr wants to join her papa and her older brother Ryszard at the lake on this sunny first day of September. They are at her Grandfather Albin's house in the countryside near Warsaw. Her mother refused to allow her to go, saying the men are busy fishing and won't want her there. After banging out Chopin's "Minute Waltz" in rebellion against her mother, Lidia races out of the house with an egg basket. In the field she hears and then sees a plane with the Nazi cross on its wings and watches as the plane drops a bomb that destroys their barn.

After the attack, they learn from the radio that the German invasion of Poland has begun. Lidia's papa refuses to stay with Grandfather and sells their automobile to grandfather's Jewish neighbor, Mr. Adelstein. He explains that this will be a safer way to travel back to Warsaw as the Nazis will think they are important people if they use the automobile. Before they leave, Grandfather warns Lidia that when the Nazis arrive in Warsaw, she must do whatever she needs to survive. 

They return to Warsaw, where they had moved a year ago so Lidia could study music at the same university as Chopin. They find their home has survived the initial bombing, but after several days hiding in the cellar, one corner has collapsed. Lidia, Ryszard and Mama search the home for clothing and supplies. Papa decides to join the Polish army to fight the Nazis, against the wishes of his family. After Papa leaves, their family maid, Ruth Gollstein whom they call Doda , along with her mother Bubbe arrived seeking shelter. Lidia insists that they accept them, although her mother is reluctant.

On September 17 they learn that Russia has invaded from the east. Then the Nazis announce that they will release poison gas into Warsaw if the city does not surrender. Warsaw falls and the Soviets and Germans sign a treaty dividing Poland in half. With Poland now occupied by the Soviets in the East and Germany in the West, life for Lidia, Ryszard and Mama becomes much more difficult. Their school building is destroyed and then all schools are closed by the Nazis. Jewish shops are targeted, Jews are forced to wear the yellow Star of David, libraries, museums and universities are closed, and Jewish men are put into forced labor.

Lidia and her family learn from Henryk Katz who was her papa's driver, that he is in a prison camp in Russia. Lidia's mother is despondent after hearing this as well as having discovered that the Nazis have stolen all their savings. This means that Mama must now work. Then a young Polish boy whose family had been helped by Lidia's parents, comes to warn them that the Nazis are planning to confiscate their home. Although Doda plans a way to save Lidia's beloved piano, they leave it behind and move into Bubbe's old apartment in the Wola district. It has no bathroom and one bedroom and a small kitchen. It is located on the south end of the Vistula River and near Lidia's piano teacher, Madame Kazowska.

In fall of 1940, thirteen-year-old Lidia and her family watch as the Nazis build a wall around the Jewish quarter using forced labour by Jews. One day after visiting the market, Lidia returns home to find Doda and Bubbe have been forcibly taken into the Jewish ghetto behind their apartment. The ghetto is now completely enclosed by a wall and guarded by Nazi soldiers. Lidia attempt to bring them food is cut short when she witnessed a Polish man shot dead for trying to do the same.

In 1941, Lidia learns from her friend, Maryna, that there are underground schools in Warsaw. Determined to attend, Lidia raises the tuition by selling the beautiful porcelain dolls her grandfather gifted her. They also receive a letter from Papa at this time telling that he is in a prison camp on a Russian island. Near the end of 1941, they learn from the underground newspaper, that Ryszard smuggles home, of the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. From a story about mass executions at Chelmno, Lidia learns that the Jews are being sent to camps to be killed. Later when Lidia looks into the ghetto she sees that it is extremely crowded and that many people are desperately thin and are starving. This motivates Lidia to begin helping those in the Jewish ghetto by slipping them food.

Throughout the spring of 1942, with her friend Maryna, Lidia continues passing food into the ghetto by various means. However, when a sign warning that those helping the Jews will be immediately executed, Lidia and Maryna are terrified. They decide they must stop helping with the food. However, the two girls discover the reality of the ghetto as they witness the Polish Jews being loaded into boxcars of a train supposedly to resettlement camps. Hearing what she believes is Bubbe's voice, Lidia attempts to get near the area but she is warned and then slapped by a German soldier who threatens to place them on the train. 

In January of 1943, they awaken to fighting in the ghetto. As Lidia watches a group of young Jewish fighters take on the German soldiers, she is impressed by their courage. She confronts Ryszard, telling him she knows he is part of the resistance and insists that she too is intent on joining. Despite his threat to tell their mother, Lidia begins to reach out to those she knows are involved and soon finds herself undertaking dangerous work as a messenger. 

Discussion

Uprising is based on the real life of Lidia Janina Durr who was a member of the Polish resistance in Warsaw, during World War II. The novel is divided into five parts: Part 1 Invasion, Part 2 Occupation, Part 3 Resistance, Part 4 Uprising and Part 5 The Escape. 

Some details of Lidia's life differ slightly from what is portrayed in Nielsen's book. For example, Lidia was born in 1924 in Warsaw, Poland and was fifteen-years-old, not twelve, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. She joined the resistance two years later when she was seventeen and worked as a messenger. While being active in the Resistance, Lidia managed to complete her high school education at an underground school. She also illegally studied medicine in the underground University of Warsaw and music at the Conservatory of Music, where Chopin once studied Lidia participated in the Warsaw Uprising (August 1 to October 2, 1944) as a messenger. The Warsaw Uprising was led by the Polish resistance as the Germans were retreating from Poland ahead of the Soviets. The Polish Resistance hoped for assistance from the Soviets but instead, Stalin order Soviet troops to halt, allowing the Germans to attack and destroy the Polish Home Army and the city of Warsaw. Almost sixteen thousand resistance fighters were killed and close to two hundred thousand Polish citizens in Warsaw were executed by the Germans. As mentioned in Nielsen's novel, no outside support from the Allies was offered, dooming the resistance to fail.

In her Author's Note, Nielsen writes that she made Lidia a few years younger in her novel. The events portrayed in the novel are taken from Lidia's own journals, writings and stories told to friends. The difficult relationship portrayed in the novel between Lidia and her mother, Janina, was real and only resolved many years later near the end of Janina's life. It's likely the premature death of Janina's first daughter, Krystyna was a factor.

In Uprising, Lidia is often arrogant, stubborn and unwilling to follow advice or direction from the leaders in the Polish Resistance. She is not a likeable protagonist until she grows older and more mature. Whether this is an accurate portrayal of the real Lidia Durr or dramatic license is uncertain. At any rate, it is obvious that under the constant threat of death, amidst the horrors of war, Lidia showed remarkable courage, ingenuity and determination as a member of the resistance. 

Nielsen has included an informative Author's Note the provides more background information on the Warsaw Uprising and the people that Lidia worked with, some of whom are also in the novel, as well as Lidia's life after the war. There are many black and white photographs of Lidia and her family to help readers relate better to the real Lidia Durr. A map detailing the location of Poland, Russia and Germany would have been helpful as well as one of Warsaw to show the location of the Warsaw Ghetto in the city and some of the other landmarks. As Nielsen mentions in her Author's Note, the city was leveled by the Germans as punishment for the uprising.

Uprising is another well-written and engaging historical fiction novel by Jennifer A. Nielsen that focuses on the Polish uprising during World War II.

Book Details:

Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen
New York: Scholastic Press   2024
356 pp.

The Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming

In The Enigma Girls, the secretive behind-the-scenes story of the contributions made by teenage girls at Bletchley Park during World War II are featured.

Their story begins with the start of World War II which began with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. This came as a shock to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who had brokered what he believed was a permanent peace with Hitler. Germany was not to invade any other European countries after annexing Czechoslovakia in 1938. But when Germany invaded Poland, breaking the treaty with Britain, Chamberlain was forced to declare war on Germany.

With the declaration of war, many government agencies were moved to the countryside to protect them. One such agency was the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS), part of the Secret Intelligence Service. Their new location was a country estate fifty miles from London, called Bletchley Park. It was given the code name, Station X. It's purpose was to break German codes and ciphers so as to learn the German military plans. Thousands of lives were at stake.

It all began at the coastal village of Withernsea with the arrival of a dozen young women at St. Leonard's Hotel. One of those women was eighteen-year-old Patricia Owtram who was stationed there as a wireless radio operator to listen to German naval traffic in the Baltic and North Seas.

In 1940, eighteen-year-old Jane Hughes, the eighteen-year-old daughter of Lord and Lady Hughes was to be a debutante. But Jane did not want the parties, dances, or dinners. What she wanted to was to be a part of the war effort. It was a letter from a former classmate inviting her to join them at Bletchley that changed everything. After being sworn to secrecy, Jane was assigned to Hut 6 where she worked to break Enigma codes sent by the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht.

Eighteen-year-old Mavis Lever quit school to help in the war effort. Fluent in German, she was assigned to Cottage 3 at Bletchley, breaking Enigma ciphers from the Italian Navy Alfred "Dilly" Knox figured if she could speak German, she could learn Italian. He was a Greek scholar and pioneering cryptographer.

Sarah Norton, the eighteen-year-old daughter of the 6th Lord Grantley received a mysterious letter requesting her to Station X at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire in four days from an unknown Commander Travis. Sarah had been sent abroad two years earlier to learn German in Munich and was familiar with Hitler and his Nazi party. Now at Bletchley Park, and sworn to the utmost secrecy, Sarah was assigned to Hut 4, part of the German Naval Section, working as an Indexer in the Index Room. She scrutinized decrypts from the Kriegsmarine and wrote key information on index cards.

By 1942, the war office now required all able-bodied British women to do war work. Seventeen-year-old Diana Payne was sent to the Wren (Women's Royal Navy Service) training camp in New College, Hampstead and then on to Bletchley Park. There she was assigned to Hut 11A which held the Bombes - machines designed by Alan Turing to break each day's new Enigma setting. The Bombes required two tall girls to attend to them, using a menu which described how the machine was to plugged up and the order of the wheels. It was tiring and difficult work.

Gwen Davis, an eighteen-year-old from Bournemouth, joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in 1942. She was sent to Hut 10, Block A to work on deciphering Luftwaffe's communications not encrypted by Enigma. Instead these messages were encrypted using a cipher book.

By June of 1943, twenty-year-old Ann Williamson had completed her degree in mathematics. She was required to do war work and eventually ended up at Bletchley Park in the Machine Room converting cribs (or guesses at the Enigma's settings for the day) and cipher text into a diagram. These diagrams, called Menus, required the ability to solve puzzles. The Menu was then sent on to a Bombe outstation.

Near the end of June, 1944, eighteen-year-old Joanna Chorley along with nineteen other WRENS arrived at Bletchley Park. She was assigned to work in Block F with Colossus I, the world's first electronic computer. It was used to determine the first half of a FISH setting. FISH were the most important top level Nazi communications enciphered by the more complex Lorenz SZ40/42 machine.

Marion Graham was sent to work in Japanese Section I in Block F, typing up Japanese messages that were decrypted and translated into English. These were sent to American cryptographers in Washington, D.C. Private Charlotte Vine-Stevens was also sent to Block . A member of the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service), she was to paraphrase translated Japanese messages which were then passed on to commanders in the field.

 By 1944, almost seven thousand people worked at Bletchley Park, deciphering 2500 army and air force messages every day including some 2000 naval messages. The contributions of the young women, who constituted about three quarters of the workforce cannot be overstated. They were vital to the success of D-Day and the winning of the war.

Discussion

The Enigma Girls is an informative book about the contributions of ten British teenage girls at Bletchley Park during World War II. Since The Enigma Girls covers the war period from 1939 to 1945, Fleming profiles ten young women working at Bletchley Park,  against the backdrop of war. Major events of the war are described including the invasion of several European countries and the Blitz in 1940, the sinking of the German boat Bismarck, the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaign in 1943, and D-Day in 1944. Oddly, the events of Dunkirk in 1941 are not mentioned.

Fleming opens with the back story of World War II and the declaration of war by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1939. Chamberlain had hoped to avoid war by signing an agreement with Adolf Hitler after he annexed Czechoslovakia in 1938. Life in Britain suddenly and drastically changed as Fleming goes on to describe. One such change was the moving of GC&CS to Bletchley Park, code-named Station X.

Much has been made of the significant contributions of Alan Turing, Dillwyn Knox and others in breaking the Enigma code and their work at Bletchley Park. However, there were over seven thousand people working at Station X, many of them young women who made significant and mostly unrecognized contributions. Beginning with Patricia Owtram, who entered the war effort in 1930 as a wireless operator, Fleming highlights ten young women who were part of thousands would keep Station X functioning through the war. Some were the daughters of aristocracy while others were university students or recent high school graduates looking for something different. The young women are profiled in chronological order, as the war continued. Fleming describes their responsibilities,  how their work was, unknown to them, interconnected to one another and what life was like for them during the war. 

It is evident that many sacrifices were made for the war effort by these young women. The work was exhausting and often depressing. For example, resetting the Bombes was exhausting. They were noisy and smelly because of the oil used to lubricate the Bombe's spindles. Diana Payne soon had calloused hands and fingers covered with small cuts. Her work made her feel exhausted and lonely. "Many others experienced sleeplessness, hand tremors, loss of appetite, and nervousness. Some had breakdowns. Most worked on the edge of mental exhaustion. The long hours, the noise of the rotating wheels, and the intensity of the work put an enormous strain on the Wrens." 

Not only could the work be difficult, but even life outside of Bletchley Park could be challenging. The young women who arrived at Bletchley Park were assigned billets or temporary housing. The quality of these billets varied; they could be comfortable and the family welcoming, or noisy, unfriendly and lacking in even the most basic amenities. 

The young women working at Bletchley Park weren't able to see the entire picture and how their work helped others. The path of an enemy message from when it was sent by the enemy, to being intercepted and sent to Bletchley Park where cryptographers worked to decipher them is outlined by Fleming, midway through the book. With each profile, Fleming explains the tasks crucial to their work at Bletchley Park. Readers will learn about wireless, Morse code, the German Enigma machine, codes and ciphers, the British cipher machine called a Typex, how to break a cipher, indexing at Bletchley, decipher a message, the Bombes and how they worked and were reset each day, cribs, creating a Menu, enciphering a cipher, the German Lorenz SZ40/42, and the Colossus I - the first electronic machine. The work was complex, vast and crucial to the war effort. Fleming includes a wealth of black and white photographs of significant events in the war but also the few existing ones of Bletchley Park, and the machines used in the war effort. 

Fleming definitely highlights not only the contributions of these ten young women in particular but of all the women who joined the war effort in Great Britain, as well as their personal sacrifices. The Enigma Girls is a thoroughly researched book that will engage not only those interested in World War II history, but also the many contributions made by women in the war, as well as codes and ciphers. Fleming has included an Author's Note, an extensive Bibliography, Source Notes for each of the chapters, Photograph and Illustration credits, and a detailed Index.

Book Details:

The Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming

New York: Scholastic Focus     2024
371 pp.