(by Karina Yan Glaser)
I read this book a few weeks after this year’s New York City marathon rather than before it, but the timing still felt apt: the events of the book start on October 20 and culminate on the day of the marathon in early November, and this is a very autumnal book, full of changing leaves and crisp air and shifting skies. It’s also a book that is heavier and less madcap than I was expecting based on the previous books in this series, though there are still moments of humor, hope, and joy. But wow I was not prepared for the amount of sobbing-on-the-couch I did while reading this one. The back cover tells us that the Vanderbeekers are helping their upstairs neighbor get ready for his first marathon and also that they want to help whoever is sleeping in the shed at the community garden they helped create, but it doesn’t mention that grief is also a major plot point. In fact, there was a lot less marathon prep than I expected (though there is some, including a great chapter about a pre-marathon 5k on Halloween and an obligatory pre-race pasta dinner), but I didn’t mind. As for the person sleeping in the shed, I knew who it was before the characters did—it’s definitely hinted at in the previous book, so I wasn’t surprised, but the reveal happens early in this book and the surprise isn’t the point: it’s more about the kids realizing that they can’t always solve problems on their own/sometimes adult help is necessary.
Anyway: the Vanderbeeker kids (ages 6-14 in this book) and their various pets and friends and neighbors are always great to read about, and I’m not mad at this book even though it made me ugly-cry. There are lots of sub-plots but it doesn’t feel like too much: there’s the marathon, and the person living in the garden shed, and grief, and eight-year-old Hyacinth having to adjust now that her two best friends no longer go to the same school she does, and fourteen-year-old Isa worrying about the feeling of distance between her and her best friend/not-quite-boyfriend Benny, and Jessie worrying about the feeling of distance between her and her best friend Orlando.
Two semi-random things, in closing: 1) I loved the description of the marathon as feeling “like a citywide block party.” Yes! I’ve been enjoying going out to cheer for marathon runners since I lived in Park Slope ages ago; now I live in Harlem and go cheer over by Marcus Garvey Park. Wherever you are on the course, the mood is 🔥, and the marathon is definitely one of my favorite days of the year. 2) I like cauliflower but it made me laugh that one of the kids in this book won’t eat it because it’s “ghost broccoli.”
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