(by Karina Yan Glaser)
The plot of this third book in the Vanderbeekers series leans pretty hard on some coincidences/events that felt unlikely to me, but the book as a whole is so charming that I was mostly willing to overlook that. In this one the kids (now aged 6 to 13) are on spring break and there’s a lot to do: Isa has an important violin audition coming up, Oliver is planning to build a tree house with his uncle, and they all need to help their mom get ready their apartment ready for an upcoming magazine photo shoot that’s going to highlight her baking business, which she runs out of their kitchen. But when an inspector from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets arrives earlier than he’s supposed to, things go sideways, and the kids take it upon themselves to try to sort things out. But things only get more complicated as the week goes on: someone is leaving stray animals outside the Vanderbeeker family’s door, and the kids have to figure out how to find homes for them (and/or just how to keep them out of the way when it’s time for a follow-up kitchen inspection).
Like the first two books in this series, this one is full of really sweet moments. I love how vividly the animals are written, from Franz the basset hound to Paganini the rabbit to a new arrival who’s just called New Dog for most of the book. And the interactions the kids have with each other and with various adults, from the exuberant new local vet tech to the local librarian to their beloved upstairs neighbors Miss Josie and Mr. Jeet to random neighborhood residents they meet while they’re out and about are generally cute and heart-warming. Despite the various challenges the kids face in each book, the books in this series are reliable comfort reads for me, and I like how in this one we get a scene with one of the kids reaching for a comfort read of his own. (One night before falling asleep in his new treehouse, Oliver pulls The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe off the shelf because he’s had it read to him before and wants something familiar: “He wasn’t in the mood for anything suspenseful or new; he wanted a story where he knew everything would turn out all right.” And yeah: though they do have moments of suspense, that is how I feel about the Vanderbeeker books.)
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