After reading her debut, Millington’s book grips my heart every time. I love the way Millington brings inanimate objects a voice, and it made me cry.

This was really beautifully written middle grade, that I would absolutely purchase for a fourth grade classroom. It deals with some heavy elements, in a really powerful way. Thank you for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I am working through my backlog, and will be momentarily posting reviews for the stories I have yet to get posted but have finished reading.

My rating: 5 stars.

Allie Millington has written a thoughtful, heartfelt story about a preteen girl grappling with the death of her sister. The narrator of this story is someone you wouldn't expect - the apartment building where she and her family reside.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was very clean, with no questionable content whatsoever. However, that doesn't mean that it wasn't tender, intelligent, gently humorous, thoughtful, and willing to take on some heavy topics, like the death of a child and how grief can sweep through a family and community and how it can be difficult to heal individually and collectively. I would definitely recommend this book.

Allie Millington just GETS the 8-12 year old experience. Her writing is perfectly suited for all ages and deals with heavy subjects with grace and realism. I love the magical elements in her books, they really bring the heavy topics to life. I loved this book and will be buying a copy for my shelves. Definitely don't sleep on this author.

I loved Olivetti and was so excited to read Once For Yes. I didn't love this one quite as much. I was frustrated with the family and the lack of communication in their grief. I was frustrated that it took so long to learn what happened to the middle sister, Lina. I didn't mind getting the perspective of the building, the Odenburgh, but didn't love that voice as much as the typewriter in Olivetti. I think I just didn't care as much. I was very glad though, at the end that the family did have a sit down conversation. I loved how it all wrapped up. It did bring me to tears. Overall I just thought this one was ok and I am giving it 3 stars.

This is five star perfection. What makes Once for Yes unforgettable is its delicate balance of grief and joy. The novel doesn't shy away from hard truths about loss and change, yet it celebrates the messy, beautiful ways people come together when everything seems to be falling apart.

When the apartment building called the Odenburgh finds out that it’s slated for demolition, it comes up with a plan to save itself. In the process, it enlists eleven-year-old Prue, who absolutely does not want to move since the Odenburgh was the last place she lived with her sister Lina, and twelve-year-old Lewis from across the street who has the answers Prue needs about Lina’s death. Through fire alarms, flickering lights, jamming elevators, and other apartment shenanigans, the Odenburgh, Prue, and Lewis must work together to enlist the help of a building full of bickering residents—before it’s too late.

I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much reading a book! It was SO GOOD and absolutely perfect for my Master’s thesis!

(Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

Once for Yes was a heartbreaking story about grief. healing, and the impact that sharing your story with others can have on you and on others. I love character driven stories and especially character driven stories that rely on inanimate characters (like an apartment building). I finished this book and immediately just cried due to all of the impactful emotions felt and shared throughout the story. Allie Milllington has a way of making you feel everything and nothing all at once and I can't wait to hear what my students think about Once for Yes.

I hold a really special place in my heart for literature like this. I love a good funny middle grade story, or an epic adventure like the Percy Jackson series, but there are also really tender, heart-felt, grief-filled middle grade books out there that just sit with you once you’ve finished. And Once For Yes is one of those.

I read Millington’s Olivetti last year and adored it. I’ve told so many people about it (yes, even adults) as it was so clever to have one of the narrators be a typewriter. Once For Yes is much like Olivetti, as the apartment building the family lives in also narrates part of the story. I wonder if this will always be part of Millington’s repertoire, to have inanimate objects be narrators. I adore it, so if she does stop, I won’t be surprised, but I will be a little heart-broken.

Anyway, the family is grieving for their middle child and sister. And when they are told the building (The Odenburgh) is getting sold, Prue, the youngest daughter, teams up with Lewis from across the street. But Lewis is harboring his own secret…one that would damage his new found friendship with Prue and the entire family. Because the secret is about Lina, the sister who died, the sister everyone is grieving.

Millington writes in a palpable way….you end up feeling the emotions of all the characters…the mother’s heartache, the father’s attempts to make everything seem okay, the oldest daughter’s need to always be somewhere else because the memories are sometimes too much. You feel Lewis’s heartbreak and you just want to gently wrap him in a hug and hold him for as long as you can. And Prue…sweet and stingy Prue. You empathize with her all the way to the end. You want things to be different for her. You want to bring her sister back to her.

And all along the way, you get the perspective of The Odenburgh. It’s weird, but also right. The building feels like a friend you’ve never had. And it sort of is, always watching, always waiting. Always giving comfort when needed and trying its best to hang on to everyone.

I love Allie MIllington's style of writing. It's poetic and clever and heartfelt. As expected, this was a sweet and enjoyable read--so full of heart and hope!

Life is hard after the loss of a loved one. That is especially true when a child dies suddenly due to a tragic accident. It leaves the entire community dealing. Once for yes focuses on a grieving family once they find out that their apartment building is being sold. Now, they have to deal with the loss of their home and their sister/daughter. The most interesting part of this novel is that the narrator is the apartment building itself.

Overall, I liked the story, but was at times irritated by the dysfunctional grieving in this family. The building as a narrator was fun (especially on audio!). I think my middle schooler would like this, but I’m not sure there’s much here for older readers of middle grade. 3.5⭐️

A fabulous book. I enjoyed every minute. The characters,including the apartment building itself, were well crafted and the story was laid out so skillfully. As someone who is grieving her own sister, I really appreciated that this book tackles a difficult topic and makes it approachable for a middle grade audience.

While I love Olivetti's cover art, I prefer this story to Millington's debut novel.

Once For Yes is a book that addresses so many parts of childhood. From growing up & apart from siblings, to making friends, grief & finding community.

If Millington writes this niche middle grade in which she animates inanimate objects, I think the world would be better for it. Like Olivetti, the animate typewriter, Once for Yes features the Odenburgh, an old apartment building. Don't we all understand that the inanimate has feelings, thoughts, and knows the world in ways that humans can only imagine? I think so or it's whimsical to think so and why it just fits so perfectly.

Millington creates a corner of the world in this area with the neighbors (friends and foes and children) in the Odenburgh as well as the larger community as they rally to save it from demise. Prue is central to this fight because it brings her closer to Lina, her sister.

It's warm and heartbreaking and creative. All the things I've now come to expect from Millington.

I really enjoyed reading Olivetti by Allie Millington so I immediately requested her latest middle-grade novel Once for Yes. Similar to Olivetti, an inanimate object takes on the role of narrator. An apartment building, The Odenburgh, tells its perspective on being sold and slated for demolition to make way for a new building. The Odenburgh has never gotten attached to its residents because they've always been temporary. However, eleven-year-old Prue doesn't want to leave. The Odenburgh is the last place her family was whole. It's the last place Prue lived with her sister Lina before she died. The Odenburgh decides to intervene into its residents' lives just this once, by flashing lights and setting off false alarms in the middle of the night, in order to bring them all together in an attempt to save their home and itself. While this story is charming and I enjoyed reading about the events from The Odenburgh's perspective, I didn't like it quite as much as Olivetti.

Thanks to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friends, and NetGalley for a review copy of Once for Yes.

I think I liked this even more than Olivetti! It deals with grief in such a beautiful way but has some levity that I really enjoyed. I don't often laugh when reading but this one caused a chuckle or two. I even caught a little nod to Amelia Bedelia.

There is a mystery thread that is woven throughout the story that kept me turning the pages and I found myself caring deeply for a building and its inhabitants.

Once For Yes is about community, found family, fear, courage, forgiveness, grief and so much more!

If you like The Vanderbeekers series, I think you will enjoy this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read an advance copy of this beautiful story!

On the heels of reading Millington's debut book, Olivetti, I knew I had to read this one. Once for Yes is about an apartment building that is about to be torn down. The building (The Odenburgh) is an actual character that expresses its thoughts, feelings, and observations. I grew to love Odenburgh and the tenants that I got to know. Just like Olivetti, the characters are rich and expressive and the storylines tear at your heartstrings. It's not easy to characterize inanimate things like Millington seems to have a knack for doing!

At the root of this story is a web of relationships and connections among the characters with strong themes of love, guilt, sorrow, and hope. It truly touches on the aspect of the memories we make with people and places.

This was another truly remarkable book from Millington and I look forward to seeing what she has in store next!

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Allie Millington does it again with ONCE FOR YES. Instead of a typewriter, this time she made me fall in love with a building—brick, by brick, by brick. I cannot wait to see what inanimate object she brings life to next!

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Publishing for the early reader copy. We are so excited to have Allie Millington visit our school soon, so I wanted to get a jump on her newest book. I LOVE it when books have a little bit of magic, and that’s what this has. My students will love it- it’s about an apartment building that is bringing people together amidst their grief, and it was the perfect amount of sweet and the perfect amount of hopeful and the perfect amount of sad.