The Lonely Typewriter

Just as an out-of-date but functional phone booth proved its worth in Ackerman and Dalton’s The Lonely Phone Booth, a typewriter, gathering dust in the attic, comes to the rescue when a family’s computer conks out. Ackerman’s story takes a while to get rolling as he traces the typewriter’s lineage (“Its owner, a young woman named Pearl, used it to type pamphlets for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”) and introduces a boy named Pablo (Pearl’s grandson) and his mixed-race family. Dalton’s illustrations feature simple, flattened shapes that feel in keeping with the old-meets-new vibe, and the story unfolds in typewritten-looking text, appropriately enough. Ages 6–9. (Aug.)