Вандербикеры с 141-й улицы

This book was very amazing. It was quite a light read as I finished it in a few hours. The story is about the Vanderbeekers who are a biracial family that consists of the parents, five kids Isa, Jessie, Oliver, Hyacinth, and Laney, and their three pets. They are told that they have to leave their home in Harlem 141st street in which they lived 6 years and love soo much. They plan to change their loan keepers Mr. Beiderman's mind so he can let them stay. The story was very well written and I highly recommend it...

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 Friends. 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.