Once for Yes by Allie Millington

In Once for Yes, an apartment building forms relationships with its residents and faces threats of its own demolition.

Once for Yes by Allie Millington. Feiwel & Friends, 2025, 259 pages

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 10-15

The Odenburgh is a tough old building. It’s been around the block—that is, been on the block—too long to get sentimental about all the people who have come and gone within its walls: “They all just leave you eventually.” True, times are changing, and all the surrounding buildings have been torn down to make room for new ones, but the Odenburgh is still solid and square, even though the pipes are a little leaky. In more ways than one: the O may be getting a little soft in its old age, particularly about the Laroe family in 4C. This is a mom (Anita), dad (Arthur), big sister Fifi, little sister Prue . . . and Lina, who recently “left.” In time we come to understand that Lina was killed in an accident just outside the building. The Odenburgh saw it all.

Guilt burdens the building, and even more Lewis, the young neighbor across the street. “What-ifs are like cracks in concrete,” muses the Odenburgh. “The more they spread, the harder it is to stand. Lewis and I were both full of them.” When word comes that the building is to be torn down, displacing all the residents, Prue is determined to stay put. How can she leave Lina, whose spirit still resides? The Odenburgh, who has never gotten involved with the residents, feels some responsibility to get involved. There may be some self-interest, too: who wants to get demolished, brick by brick? Prue and Lewis hatch a plan—actually more than one—to save the building, retain something of a beloved sister, and assuage guilt.

As in her debut novel, Olivetti, the author hands the narrative burden over to an inanimate object who witnesses a family’s trauma. A building can witness a lot more than a manual typewriter, and we peer into more windows, so to speak, than the Laroe’s. The ending may not be what readers expect, but it’s satisfying and unique in its way. The Odenburgh has a personality readers won’t soon forget.

Bottom Line: An engaging novel about “Holding on, holding up, and holding together.”

Also at Redeemed Reader:

Reviews: Hope in the Valley (starred review) and Here in the Real World (starred review) have similar themes of demolition and renewal.

Resource: See our Love and Laughter book list for more great family stories.

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