The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street

Laney must restrain herself from eating the delicious pastries on the walk home. All the children work quickly to prepare a tray for Mr. Beiderman’s breakfast in bed. They use Hyacinth’s beloved tea set and even include a cloth napkin. Jessie and Laney creep up to the third floor, and Laney knocks on the Beiderman’s door. As she tries to stop Laney from knocking again, Jessie loses control of the tray, spilling all the food on the floor and shattering the teapot. As Jessie sees the Beiderman watching them through the peephole, she panics, and shouts, “Oh fudge!” (83), and the sisters run home to where their siblings are waiting. Jessie explains the catastrophe and Hyacinth conceals her heartbreak over the shattered teapot. Laney eats the remaining croissants while the others clean up the mess in the hallway.

Jessie and Laney deliver breakfast in bed to their parents. Papa is filtering through computer repair work requests while Mama is looking at real estate ads. Jessie sadly tells her mother that she doesn’t want to move, and Mama agrees she doesn’t want to leave behind all their memories. She glances to a place on the wall where Oliver drew a picture of the family including the unborn Hyacinth and Laney. Mama begins to cry, which makes Jessie feel even worse about their breakfast-in-bed scheme not going to plan.

Feeling guilty for what happened with the breakfast tray, Hyacinth decides to make Mr. Beiderman a green and red placemat personalized with his name. Hyacinth brings Franz with her for support and climbs the stairs to deliver the gift to the Beiderman and tries to encourage herself to knock on the door: “She needed to be Hyacinth the Brave: a Girl on a Mission to Save Her Home” (89). She instantly regrets knocking on the door when she hears Mr. Beiderman stomping towards her. When he opens the door, Hyacinth sees a scary man dressed in black and he shouts at her to leave him alone. Hyacinth drops the placemat and runs home where she collapses into her bed and sobs.

Oliver comforts his sister and claims he will “challenge him to a pirate duel” (93) and suggests that they let Franz pee on the Beiderman’s door. Hyacinth cannot understand why the Beiderman hates them so much. Oliver distracts her by suggesting they look at her button collection. When he asks what the Beiderman looks like, Hyacinth tells him he looks like the werewolf from the scary movie they saw with Uncle Arthur.

Laney takes Paganini to visit Miss Josie and Mr. Jeet. Laney loves visiting them because Miss Josie serves her strawberry jam cookies and tea and is teaching her the lindy hop dance. Laney appreciates that Mr. Jeet doesn’t struggle to understand her. He speaks slowly after having a stroke two years ago. All the Vanderbeeker children have fond memories of playing with Mr. Jeet before his stroke. Laney mostly just sits in his lap, and they feed cilantro to Paganini. Mr. Jeet decides they will teach Paganini to do tricks and perform a show after Christmas dinner. Laney asks Mr. Jeet if Mr. Beiderman likes cheese croissants, but he just confusedly glances at Miss Josie and says he doesn’t know. Miss Josie said she knew Mr. Beiderman a long time ago and that he once loved jazz music. Laney thinks Miss Josie and Mr. Jeet are moving with them, but Miss Josie explains that they are too old to move but she promises that they will visit the Vanderbeekers. Mr. Jeet cries as Laney packs up Paganini and leaves.

After reading from a science encyclopedia, Jessie goes to her room to find Isa with their school friend Allegra trying on dresses for the eighth-grade dance. Allegra’s dress is purple and poufy, and Jessie thinks it’s terrible and doesn’t understand why girls like to wear fluffy, sparkly clothes. Allegra suggests that Jessie trade in her frumpy jeans and sweatshirts for more fashionable clothing and a better hairstyle. Much to Jessie’s dismay, Isa wants to go to the dance and tries on a long peach dress. Jessie still hasn’t told Isa about Benny, but she feels conflicted, thinking, “If Isa went to this dance without her—and with a boy—what would it mean? It would be the first major life event they didn’t experience together” (104). Jessie tells Allegra that they can’t worry about the dance because they must find a new house. Allegra is upset and offers a string of absurd suggestions for how to solve their problem before returning to the dresses.

After he helps Hyacinth calm down, Oliver writes a letter to the Beiderman saying he should not be so mean to others and that if he continues, he will receive a black spot, a reference to Treasure Island. He uses cutout letters to spell the Beiderman’s name and slides the letter under his door and gallantly returns home feeling prideful for defending his family. Still angry about her conversation with Allegra, Jessie asks him if she needs a new wardrobe. When he honestly answers yes, she gets even angrier. He tells her to relax and go get a croissant from Castleman’s, which upsets her more. Feeling unfairly targeted, Oliver storms to his room and slams the door. Allegra and Isa invite Jessie to go with them to Castleman’s, but she says no and tries to convince them to stay home. Feigning a headache, Jessie tells them to go without her and escapes to her room, burying her head under the covers.

On their walk to Castleman’s, Jessie’s strange behavior distracts Isa while Allegra rambles on about attending the dance with her date Carlson. Allegra wonders if Isa can find a date, but Isa is only thinking about getting to Castleman’s so she can talk to Benny about the move. As they walk, she thinks, “Allegra was great, but when Isa talked to Benny she felt like he stopped everything he was doing and really, truly listened to her” (113). However, when they enter the bakery, Benny acts strangely distant and avoids making eye contact with Isa, barely speaking to her as he takes her order. When she mentions adding another croissant for Jessie, his face looks angry. Before leaving, Isa says she wants to tell him something, but Benny interrupts her, mistakenly thinking that she is talking about the dance, and says he already knows and doesn’t care. Crestfallen, Isa pays for her croissants and begins to cry as she leaves.

Oliver and Laney watch as Mama packs boxes and designates a box just for items to donate. Oliver protests as she tosses in one of his old T-shirts, and Laney pulls out an old pair of leggings and makes them into a headdress. Papa arrives home from a repair job in his coveralls. He says Oliver must keep his old T-shirt because he was wearing it when he made his first basketball free throw. Laney discovers a box of old jazz records and tells them what Miss Josie said about the Beiderman once enjoying jazz music. Oliver rescues the records from the donate box and takes them to his room. Laney suggests they gift a record to the Beiderman, so they select a Duke Ellington album and leave it by his door.

The children overhear Mama speaking angrily with Mr. Beiderman on the telephone. He wants to show the apartment to a real estate agent the next day. Mama tries to argue with him that it is too short notice for them to have the apartment ready, but he will not oblige. According to their lease, they must allow prospective renters to tour the apartment during the last month of their lease. Mama is overwhelmed and the children are aghast at the thought of someone else living in their home. Papa eases the tension by offering to take the children Christmas tree shopping while Mama packs. The kids argue that it’s pointless to buy a tree since this Christmas is so sad, but Papa argues that it’s just the thing they need to brighten everyone’s mood. As they leave the house and walk down the street, they greet all their neighbors by name, which gives Isa an idea.

Papa leads the children over the bridge that connects Harlem to the Bronx and retells the story of the time his father took him to Mr. Ritchie’s Christmas tree stand, but they did not have enough money to buy a tree, so Mr. Ritchie gave it to them. When they arrive at the stand, Mr. Ritchie is listening to classical music and Papa gives him a green scarf, a Christmas gift from Mama. Laney tells Mr. Ritchie that she likes his gold tooth. Everyone has their own ideas of the type of tree that they need, but Laney selects a small scrawny tree. Since Laney has never selected the family tree, they agree with her choice. Jessie notes, “I guess the tree is sort of symbolic” (127). Laney also demands to buy a tree for Miss Josie and Mr. Jeet. Papa and the children walk home with their trees gazing at the beauty of the neighborhood lit for the holiday season.

Papa installs the tiny tree and collects their ornaments from storage, and the family works together to decorate the tree while they enjoy Mama’s fresh-baked cookies. The ritual reminds Papa of all the wonderful Christmases they have celebrated in this home. The beauty of the tree makes Mama nostalgic for when the children were younger, but each of the children is distracted by their concerns. Laney admires her perfect tree, Oliver snags the last cookie, Hyacinth worries about someone else living in her room, Isa ponders her new idea, and Jessie worries about the Benny conundrum.

After the children go to bed, Mama and Papa stay up and reminisce about past Christmases while sipping spicy hot chocolate. Mama thinks about all the memories they won’t have in the house, like when Isa and Jessie go to prom. Papa is worried about finding another apartment in Harlem because real estate is expensive. Since they received a rent discount for Papa’s superintendent services, they may not be able to find a comparable situation. Mama offers to take on more baking jobs, but they both know with five children to care for that she is already overextended. Mama suggests moving closer to her family in Ottenville, but Papa has lived his entire life in Harlem and cannot envision leaving the community they have built there.

Unbeknownst to Mama and Papa, Hyacinth and Laney are eavesdropping on their conversation. The two sisters sneak back upstairs and awaken Jessie, Isa, and Oliver and call an emergency meeting. When Hyacinth explains what they learned about the possibility of leaving Harlem, everyone is aghast, especially Isa, who will have to find a new violin teacher. Ottenville is four hours from Harlem and all the children agree that they can’t bear to be that far from their friends. Having already failed at trying to convince the Beiderman to like them, the children aren’t hopeful that they can accomplish their mission in three days, but Isa explains that she had an idea on the way to purchase the Christmas tree and everyone huddles together to hear her plan.