MG Book Review: The Vanderbeekers of 141 Street

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A repost from my review on the Kidliterati Blog


When the Vanderbeeker children of 141 Street in Harlem discover their landlord isn’t renewing the lease, they strike out with inventive ways to convince him otherwise. Only he isn’t going to be easy to convince, he never leaves his third-floor apartment, and he’s grouchy and scary.


It’s Christmastime in the city. Mr. Vanderbeeker calls a meeting and explains to his five biracial children, along with their dog, a cat, and house rabbit that they have to leave the neighborhood they’ve grown up in. The friendly neighborhood where they know every clerk and shop owner. It’s the worst time to be homeless.

Distraught beyond comprehension, one by one, each of the five Vanderbeeker children, Oliver, the twins Jessie and Isa, and Laney and Hyacinth come up with clever ideas that are sure to melt the landlord, Mr. Beiderman’s heart. Only nothing works, even when the entire neighborhood signs a petition to help save their home.

It’s an all-out love assault. But will anything stop the Beiderman?

Such a delightful and heartwarming story that reminded me of the feeling I had reading books as a child. A classic. Each of the Vanderbeeker’s children will find their way into your heart with their charms and creativity. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series, The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden. (Sept. 25, 2018)




View all my reviews

MG Book Review: The Countdown Conspiracy by Katie Slivensky

The Countdown Conspiracy by Katie Slivensky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



A re-post from my review on The Kidliterati blog.
 I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a ride! This book is Star Trek for Middle-Grade readers.

Only the best of the best are chosen, and thirteen-year-old, engineer, Miranda Regent, from the USA, is preparing for a flight to Mars. Her adorable mechbot, outfitted with thrusters, is her companion. She’s one of six kids from around the world, training for this mission aboard the Ambassador.

But the bombs! The kids barely escape. A war is about to break out on Earth. Miranda receives threating messages. Someone wants the space agency destroyed. Has Miranda been singled out as the target? And it’s only training day.
What if they never have the chance to blast off, after a life’s worth of training because the space agency is in ruins?

Suspects, mystery, and intrigue; no one can figure out who’s trying to sabotage the space program. Is it the Russians? A great cast of international kid characters, dealing with living and working in close proximity. There are rivals and jealousy, high stakes, and adventure!

The details about flight create an outstanding realness, and it’s science, due to the author being a science educator. She knocked this book out of the park – or I should say, into outer space. Energizing and inspiring and perfect for STEM readers.

MG Book Review: The Tiara on the Terrace by Kristen Kittscher

The Tiara on the Terrace by Kristen Kittscher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an ARC for an honest review.

The second book to The Wig in the Window and I loved this middle-grade adventure just as much, if not more because the main characters feel even more familiar to me. Sophie Young and Grace Yang, the tween super sleuths, are at it again and they’ve brought another friend, Trista, into their triumvirate alliance.

A fun whodunit that kept me guessing the entire way through, and I was completely surprised by the culprit. It’s the biggest crime to hit the girls’ hometown Luna Vista since the last large crime the girls solved, turned them into household names.

And now with the backdrop of the Winter Sun Festival, a festival similar to the Rose Bowl, Sophie and her BFF Grace have quite the caper ahead when the president in charge of the Festival is killed by a freak accident on the first day of preparations. But the girls don’t buy it after they learn that a mechanical marshmallow whipped the Festival president, Mr. Steptoe, out of his senses and left him dead, was an accident. The police assume it was a malfunctioning mechanical marshmallow. The have to act fast before the next president of the Festival gets knocked down and taken out.

It’s too suspicious, and there are so many suspects. The girls try and narrow it down, but first they have to go undercover as court pages. Sophie doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to have to spend three days alone with High School girls on the Royal Court, covering them with fake tans, sorting their clothes, and doing their bidding. It’s only when Grace has done a sufficient job convincing her, she’s on the team, and they make it in. All three girls make the cut. They spend the next three days, away from their parents, and get busy snooping, and deducing, and creating a little mischief of their own.

But something amazing happens. The seventh-grade girls grow closer with the high school girls, even after Sophie lets out an embarrassing secret that belonged to Grace when she wasn’t around to tell it herself. Things come together–after a few obstacles to a very satisfying end. Such a great middle-grade read. I could probably read about these sleuths in volumes. LOVED this sweet and madcap caper.


View all my reviews