[4] The Vanderbeeker family—a biracial family consisting of a mother, father, five children (twins Isa and Jessie, Oliver, Hyacinth and Laney), and a cat, dog and rabbit—live in a brownstone apartment on 141st Street in Harlem.

Shortly before Christmas, their live-in landlord, the reclusive Mr. Beiderman, declines to renew their lease, forcing the Vanderbeeker family to move at the end of the year.

Many of these efforts go awry, including attempting to prepare him a special breakfast (only for the tea tray to be dropped and shattered), gathering signatures from their friends in the neighborhood for a petition, sending a rude letter from Oliver, and giving him a kitten.

In The New York Times Book Review, Jennifer Hubert Swan called it "a warmhearted, multiracial update to the classic big-family novel."

(The Vanderbeekers’ 'Roof of Epic Proportions,' a shared space where serious sibling meetings are convened, channels the spirit of the Melendy clan's 'Office,' a top-floor playroom off limits to adults.)

Instead, Swan writes, "Glaser plants subtle hints in dialogue, descriptions and names that could suggest a number of possibilities.

"[5] School Library Journal recommended its purchase for middle-grade collections and noted that "fans of Sydney Taylor and Jeanne Birdsall are sure to be satisfied by this contemporary urban update of the family-centered novel.

"[6] Tish Harrison Warren praised the way Glaser evokes Harlem, writing in the New York Times that she "makes the neighborhood seem almost magical, a place where community flourishes and neighbors all know one another by name.