By Karina Yan Glaser
Five siblings in Harlem set out to change their grumpy landlord's mind in the days before Christmas, so their family won't lose the only home they've known.
The five Vanderbeeker children live in the garden apartment of a brownstone on 141st Street, and they love it. A week before Christmas, their landlord tells them the lease won't be renewed and the family has to move out. That's Mr. Beiderman, who lives upstairs, never comes down, and never smiles. So the children decide to win him over before moving day. They bake him cookies, play him music, paint him a portrait, and even bring a rabbit into it. Every plan goes wrong in a new and spectacular way, and Christmas keeps getting closer.
It's all heart and no fright. The family really might lose the home they love, so there's genuine suspense, but the book stays warm the whole way through. Full rooms, a dog underfoot, siblings tumbling over each other. A child who can't take scary or violent stories gets to feel the stakes without anything dark ever happening. The five children are drawn so clearly that your child will have a favorite by the second chapter. And the chapters are short and funny, so it moves fast even with all the feeling packed in.