A fantastic story! I enjoyed every page of this book. I feel like part of the family and can't wait to get to know the characters even more. I hope that the series continues.

Karina Yan Glaser’s The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street is great MG read

THE VANDERBEEKERS OF 141ST STREET, by Karina Yan Glaser, HMH Books for Young Readers, Oct. 3, 2017, Hardcover, $16.99 (ages 7-10)

“Home is where the heart is.” Or so the saying goes. But for the children in The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street their hearts are permanently etched on the house they call home.

The brownstone on 141st Street is the only home the five Vanderbeeker kids have ever known. The problem is, it’s not going to be their home much longer. In fact, the family has to be out in eleven days.

When the siblings learn their grouchy landlord hasn’t renewed their lease, they decide to take matters into their own hands. One way or another, they plan to convince Mr. Beiderman to let them stay. After all, he just hasn’t had the opportunity to realize how wonderful they are.

The problem is, Mr. Biederman doesn’t care. He doesn’t want anything to do with the kids at all. It’s because of the kids he’s not renewing their lease. It’s going to take a team effort and a creative plan if the Vanderbeekers have any hope of staying in the home they love.

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street is a contemporary novel that feels as if it could be set in any time. The children are creative and smart without coming across as overly cute. Each has their own strengths and personalities and each have equal billing throughout.

There’s magic to The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street although not in the way you usually think of it. The magic comes in the siblings’ resourcefulness. They are both supportive of each other and willing to try things on their own. They don’t spend their time in front of electronic devises, but rather create things of their own.

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street is a charming middle-grade novel that would be fun read aloud or individually. It’s quick-paced and laced with humor sure to appeal to even the pickiest of readers.

As a librarian, I know just which readers will enjoy this book. At 300 pages, it's a tome for a middle grade reader, but what 4th grader won't get sucked into the tension between the five Vanderbeeker children and their mysterious landlord who intends to evict them? There is so much sibling love and neighborly kindness. Great for kids who love pets, books, music, cute four-year-olds, and holiday magic.

Great for readers of Penderwicks, Cheaper by the Dozen, All-of-a-Kind Family, and the Melendy Family.

This was a delightful & heartwarming story about family and neighborhood. I immediately fell in love with each of the Vanderbeekers and spent the book cheering on the kids as they tried to save their home. Highly recommend!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Glaser is a wonderful book that's positively overflowing with charm. The Vanderbeeker children are hilarious, and I fell instantly in love with each one of them and with the happy chaos of their household of 5 children, one dog, one cat and one bunny.

The five Vanderbeeker children range from age 4-and-three-quarters to twelve; four girls and one boy. They also have a dog, a cat and a rabbit which all adds up to one bustling household. When they find out their lease will not be renewed for the new year, the kids all come up with their own ways to convince their landlord to let them stay.

Each of the kids are endearing in their own way, as are the the various neighbors who are such a big part of life as they know it. The Vanderbeekers face troubles, misunderstandings and heartaches, but in their lives there is also beauty, music, ingenuity, teamwork, and love.

I received this ARC from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group and HMH Books for Young Readers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am always on the lookout for good middle grade Christmas books and this one proved to be an excellent one.

The Vanderbeekers are a family of 7 (Dad, Mom, 4 sisters, and 1 lone brother… bless his heart) who live in a brownstone in Harlem with their various pets. Right before Christmas, their landlord decides not to renew their lease with no explanation. The kids are baffled- they’ve been trying so hard to be as quiet as possible! The kids decide that they can’t possible leave their home, especially after their parents say they might have to leave Harlem altogether. Banding together, the Vanderbeeker children decide to make Beiderman understand just why they can’t move… and why he doesn’t want them to.

I was very impressed with the family and friend dynamics in this book. While the kids do come together to convince Beiderman to renew their lease, the kids still do what kids do! They fight, they argue, they have fun with their friends. In a lot of books, the central conflict becomes all the characters think about and that’s not wholly realistic especially when it comes to children. People still have lives to lead even in crisis and I loved that in between scheming, the Vanderbeeker children were doing normal things.

There’s a wide variety of characters in the book and while I don’t feel that they were necessarily very well fleshed out, they served their purpose of lending support to the children when it was necessary. I love a good fleshed out side character, but I also love characters that have maybe just a steering purpose.

Beiderman is a classic curmudgeonly man with a past. I pretty much figured what his tragic story would be but younger readers probably would not. If you do buy this one for younger readers, I would definitely impress upon them that they probably should not keep pestering a reclusive neighbor. It works in fiction but probably isn’t a good idea in real life.

All in all, I enjoyed this book so much and I can’t wait to share this with my godkids in December!

This was a quick and enjoyable read. I think there are a lot of themes that can be used as an opening to a discussion with children. Even though this was a shorter book, the characters were developed well and allowed the reader to get to know them. Overall, this was a good story and I hope for more about the Vanderbeekers.

I received a galley of this book from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers via NetGalley. This has not influenced my opinions or thoughts about this book.

Imagine a ragtag group of children ranging from almost-5 to 12 living in Harlem with a landlord like Mr. Heckles from <i>Friends</i>. Isn't that a charming premise? I enjoyed the warm relationship between the Vanderbeeker children and the strong, trust-oriented one between the children and their parents. The older neighbors upstairs who live between Mr. Beiderman and the Vanderbeekers are also delightful and oh so patient.

This would make a great read-aloud book for families with kids of any age. It even verges into some burgeoning young adult topics like the 8th grade dance and navigating those issues, making this a compelling book for all ages. Glaser also incorporates some diversity into the book with a mention of the Vanderbeeker family being biracial; from the brief mention, it seems that the children are half-Asian, but it's not a big aspect of the book.

Throughout the book, simple drawings accompany the text, which add a nice interactive element to the book and a good way to break up the material for younger audiences who may want to investigate more visually.

The Christmas subplot of the book seemed a bit thin, and it seemed only to serve one purpose – to prompt the Vanderbeeker kids to move fast in trying to convince Mr. Beiderman to let them stay in the house.

Overall, I think this is a great book for young readers and would recommend.

An absolutely charming debut - heartfelt, funny, and simultaneously fresh and old-fashioned. Fans of The Penderwicks will adore this.

I had the opportunity to read a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for this review. I really enjoyed reading this middle grade novel that allows readers to pull up a chair in the cozy kitchen of the Vanderbeekers’ Harlem brownstone. The Vanderbeekers are a family with five children that are each charming in their own way. Middle grade kids will most definitely be able to relate to somebody in this household!

The Vanderbeeker kids have lived in this apartment house for as long as any of them can remember. But a few days before Christmas, they are informed that their lease is not being renewed, and they have to be out of their home by the end of the month. Mr. Beiderman, their mysterious landlord who lives on the third floor of their building, has given the family no reason why he wants them to leave. The kids in the family team up and concoct a plan to try to convince Mr. Beiderman to change his mind. But they don't have much time, and if they don't succeed, this will be their last Christmas in this house.

This close knit family sets a good example for how we should get along in our homes. Family members don't always agree with one another, but they always remember that they're on the same team and that it's important for them to stick up for each other. The family also realizes how fortunate they are to have friends, family, and neighbors that love them and care about them.

The book also has a good lesson about making assumptions about people without having the whole story. Sometimes when a person acts in ways that are unkind, there are reasons that explain how that person got to that place. And while this story doesn't excuse the behaviors, it shows that we should still persist in being kind anyway.

I think this a terrific middle grade novel. It definitely belongs in classroom and school library collections for kids in grades 4-8.

I adored this book! It is a wonderfully satisfying story with all the right elements for a modern classic. This book immediately became one of my all-time favorites. It will make you wish you lived in this house on 141st street. I want to be a Vanderbeeker!


AUTHOR: Karina Yan Glaser
GENRE: Realistic
SETTING: New York City
GIVE IT TO: 2nd-5th graders

SUMMARY: The five Vanderbeeker siblings love their neighborhood and love their house. They live on the bottom two floors of a brownstone in Harlem. On the 3rd floor is a lovely old couple who adore the kids and serve as surrogate grandparents. But on the top floor is Mr. Beiderman, the landlord. The kids are too loud and too rambunctious for the Beiderman so he has decided not to renew their lease. The Vanderbeeker kids have to find a way to win Mr. Beiderman over before they have to move out.


CONTENT:
Language: none
Sexuality: none
Violence: none
Drugs/Alcohol: none


THEMES: friendship, activism, community, family, loss

THE BOTTOM LINE: I will buy this book for everyone I can think of! I’ve already recommended it for my nephew who is a big Fitzgerald-Trout fan!

STATUS IN MY LIBRARY: We have it! It’s going to be a contender in our Newbery Unit.

READALIKES:
Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
Tuesdays at the Castle
The Willoughbys

The Vanderbeekers of 141 Street will have to move out of their beloved brownstone after Christmas, which is in five days. All five children are shocked, they don't want to leave and they come up with a plan to win their landlord over. When Christmas Day is here, they still haven't made any progress, or have they?

A wonderful middle-grade book about siblings that pull together to reach their goal, about neighbourhood and neighbours, and how hard it can be to make friends.

I wish this was available in kindle, it was hard for me to read on PDF. Aside from that, I LOVED the story. The 5 children are well created and developed, even the secondary characters and settings are described well and fit in seamlessly to the story.

My family LOVED this book - an excellent read-aloud that went over just as well as The Penderwicks (one of our favorite books of all time). The neighborhood came to life in the story, and we fell in love with every member of the Vanderbeeker family. This is sure to become a classic with heart, humor, and beautiful writing.

I immediately fell in love with the Vanderbeeker family! I loved meeting mom, dad, Jessie, Isa, Oliver, Hyacinth, and Laney! I enjoyed reading about their antics in trying to get their landlord, Mr Beiderman, to renew their lease that was going to be up right after Christmas. I enjoyed the craziness that was the Vanderbeeker household at all times. I also enjoyed reading a story where all of the siblings are actually working together, even though they might not get along 100% of the time. There is also a sad element to the story, that I thought really brought things together in a meaningful way at the end.
Thinking about having this book in my 4th grade classroom, I feel fairly certain that with so many main characters, that most students would connect with at least one of the Vanderbeeker kids.
I would recommend this book for 4th grade and up.

This was so cute! Kids are going to love it and I did too!

An absolutely delightful book with an absolutely delightful cast of characters! This novel is so heart-warming and fun.

The Vanderbeekers are a family of five living in New York City, loving their house, neighborhood and community, but they are told by their recluse, and quite grumpy, landlord that he is not renewing their lease. Not wanting to move, the Vanderbeeker children brainstorm and put plans into action to try and get their landlord to change his mind. All the children are quite charming and very determined. This is a lovely story about a family and community pulling together to make change and help one another.

I couldn't wait to read this book and I was not disappointed. The story of the Vanderbeekers and Biederman drew me in from page one. The vivid language and sold character development made it easy to transport myself to the brownstone in Harlem and love the story with them. Although there were many characters with their own stories, it wasn't hard to follow and connected very well. The beauty of family and the pain of struggle were evident in this book and showcased in a beautiful way.

Cute book, good read; Wondering if this is going to be part of a series?