The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue

July 1, 2019
The multiracial Vanderbeekers return in another Harlem adventure. It all starts because of Mama's good news: A magazine wants to feature her home-based bakery! The five children, ranging in age from 13 to 6, ready the house by surprise-repainting the walls in the middle of the night (how could they have known that in the daylight it would look fuchsia and not baby pink?) and, when Mama isn't home, helpfully showing in the health inspector (who orders the business shuttered due to the Vanderbeekers' multiple pets). It's up to them to rectify their mistakes, and that would be all well and good if it weren't for the fact that their house is being bombed with new pets in the middle of the night--soon their brownstone is overrun with kittens, guinea pigs, and chickens. Once again Glaser produces a charming novel reminiscent of classic and contemporary family story mainstays by Edward Eager, Jeanne Birdsall, and others, but she adds depth with racial diversity, evocative city details, and complex socio-economic issues, even if this particular volume's catastrophes stretch believability. Glaser's chapter heads, occasional annotated lists and charts, and maps both add whimsy and attest to the busyness of this family's life. Satisfying as a stand-alone and a welcome return for those who consider the Vanderbeekers part of their own family. (Fiction. 8-12)

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July 1, 2019
Grades 3-6 Spring break is chaotic in the Vanderbeeker household. Mom, who bakes cookies to sell, struggles to prepare for a kitchen inspector's visit and a magazine photo shoot of her baked goods. Meanwhile, her five children let the inspector in at a bad time, attempt to help one night by painting the living room a disastrous pink, and deal with a series of pets abandoned at their door. Despite the kids' best efforts, calamities pile up, but with support from friends, neighbors, relatives, and a kindly stranger, their week ends happily after all. Glaser manages the large cast of characters with ease, shifting the third-person narrative's point of view from one young Vanderbeeker to the next. These distinctly individual characters are a little older now, and details within the story show their emerging skills, capabilities, and awareness of others, as well as their well-established interests and personalities. With the main events unfolding within a six-day period, the short time frame and looming disaster bring a sense of urgency to the narrative. A satisfying addition to the Vanderbeeker series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2020
A big family, lots of pets, harried loving parents, a chaotic house, a supporting cast of eccentrics, a seemingly intractable problem in which kids save the day�? in this, the third outing for the Vanderbeeker family of Harlem (The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, rev. 11/17, and sequel), Glaser ticks all the boxes of a classic middle-grade ensemble piece. The five Vanderbeeker children, established in previous books as ingenious and energetic, apply their particular skills to outwitting a new antagonist�? City Hall�? when an inspector closes down their mother's cookie-making business. In a single crammed week of spring break�? which also includes building a treehouse, solving a mystery (who is dropping off abandoned animals at their home every night?), and an important violin audition�? these genial children organize an inventive new family-business plan. At one point in the novel ten-year-old Oliver needs a story "where he knew everything would turn out all right." This is that story. It's funny, with character-grounded quirkiness, just enough slapstick, and no winking over kids' heads. The adults in their supportive urban community are benevolent but objects of some pity: "Being an adult is awful, " declares thirteen-year-old Jessie. The whole thing is a little retro, very welcoming to the reader, and sweet to the core. Sarah Ellis

(Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)