Karina Yan Glaser Books In Order

Publication Order of The Vanderbeekers Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Karina Yan Glaser is a bestselling children’s fiction author from New York that is best known for her series “Vanderbeekers. “The author grew up in California and Ilkliois but even as she grew up, her favorite place was always New York City. She would later on attend college in New York City and has never left.

Karina penned the manuscript for “Of 141st Street” her debut novel in 2017. The novel would surprise everyone as it would become hugely popular and spawn the “Vanderbeekers” series of novels.

Due to the massive popularity of the novels, they have been translated into more than a dozen languages and several have even been optioned and are set to be made into films. In addition to her novels, Karina is also a “Book Riot” contributing editor and cohosts the podcast Kidlit These Days.

One of her proudest achievements is that she has brought up children that are just as passionate about books as she is. She currently makes her home in a Harlem coop where she lives with her husband, two kids, and an odd assortment of animals they rescued from shelters.

After graduating from college, Karina Yan Glaser worked in education and nonprofit fields in New York. During this time, she used to spend much of her time teaching literacy in family homeless services and after-school programs.

Karina has also worked with international non-profit organizations that established healthcare systems in underresourced countries burdened with HIV/AIDS. While she loved working in humanitarian causes despite the low pay, she still retained her love for writing.
Ever since she had been just a small kid learning to form her letters, writing is something she had always done. When she ultimately had kids of her own, an uncle dared her to pen a children’s fiction work and she accepted the challenge.

Her debut novel followed the life and times of a family and they fought to avoid eviction and were ultimately successful in the endeavor. Following the success of the novel she got a job with Book Riot.

She believed working there would be a fun way to talk about her love for middle-grade fiction and books in general. In adition to her fiction, she also writes Book Riot’s weekly kid’s lit newsletter.

As for Karina Yan Glaser’s influences, she has said that while growing up, she always loved reading children’s fiction works. Since her parents were Chinese immigrants they lived quite an isolated life and this is what made Karina turn to books in her loneliness.
She longed for the bustling and big families she would read about in works such as Sydney Taylor’s All of a Kind Family Eleanor Estes’ The Moffats and Elizabeth Enright’s The Saturdays.

When she began writing the “Vanderbeeker kids” a lot of her inspiration came from these novels in addition to her family and her neighborhood in Salem. One particular experience was when she brought her dog to live in her apartment and he barked a lot during the day due to separation anxiety.

It would lead to a situation with an upstairs neighbor that slept during the day and worked nights. But it was eventually resolved when she apologized and bought him a white noise machine.

Karina also served on the coop board for four years and got to hear a lot of neighbor drama during that time. She has also found some inspiration from the stories he husband told her about growing up with a twin brother.

Karina Yan Glaser’s “The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street” is a delightfully heartwarming and charming family story set during the Christmas holidays. The five Vanderbeeker siblings are four-year-old Laney, Hyacinth a six-year-old, Olive the nine-year-old, and Jessie and Issa who are twelve-year-old twins.

The kids just learned that they are about to lose their home and could not have been more dismayed. Their brownstone in Harlem has always been home and they love their neighbors.

Will they be able to convince their landlord Mr. Beiderman, who is a notorious misanthrope and recluse to renew the family’s lease or will this be their last Christmas at the only place they know as home?

The novel is written in sections, and each is about a single day from December 20th to December 25th. This setup makes the work read like some brilliant update of some of the best American children’s fiction.

The Vanderbeekers family happens to be biracial and they have a very diverse friends circle. Still, it does feel that this fact is never the focus of the story as it is simply told in a matter-of-fact way as the author prefers to focus on the story.

The Vanderbeekers return in “The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden,” which continues from where the debut left off. In this work, Mr. Jeet the upstairs neighbor of the Vanderbeeks has a stroke and the children become terribly upset and worried.
Oliver wants to turn the overgrown and vacant lot next to the church into a community garden. This is something their neighbor Miss Josie and Mr. Jeet have wanted for a long time. They know it will greatly cheer him up when he arrives home from the hospital to find the community garden.

All the kids contribute and work hard to clear and clean up the lot and then plant a beautiful garden. Even Isa that is currently studying at music camp plays her sibling her violin for motivation as part of her contribution.
But things turn interesting when the kids learn that the plot of land had recently been sold to a developer. They combine forces and fight hard in this compelling novel as they seek to do something living and beautiful for their friend.

Karina Yan Glaser’s “The Vanderbeeks to the Rescue” sees the kids determined to save their business from being shut down by the city in a race against time. For the Vanderbeeker kids, things had been off to a good start in the spring.
Hyacinth, Jess, and Laney are over the moon since they will be helping their mother as she stars in a cooking magazine. Meanwhile, Oliver has been building his first-ever tree house in the brownstone backyard while Isa just returned from music camp.
But their plans are thrown into disarray when some city officials make an unexpected visit. Their mother’s bakery is in danger of getting closed and they may have to come together and save the day.

The dismay and frustration of the kids is evident as the city officials are determined to shut down the business due to the huge coterie of animals in the house.

From this, we get insights into the flavorful neighborhood of Harlem. It is also a delight seeing how the kids come up with some innovative solutions and sometimes not so wise decisions.