| Karina Yan Glaser | |
| Genre: | Children's literature, Young adult fiction |
| Notable Works: | The Vanderbeekers series |
| Spouse: | Dan Glaser |
| Children: | 2 |
Karina Yan Glaser (born 1979 or 1980[1]) is an American author. She is best known for the seven-volume children's fiction series The Vanderbeekers, about a family with five children and several pets living in Harlem. By the time of the final book's release in 2023, the Vanderbeekers books had sold more than half a million copies and been translated into 13 languages.[2] The first book in the series was named one of The New York Times Book Reviews notable children's books for 2017,[3] and the second book in the series appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list for middle-grade children's books.[4]
Glaser was born in California to Chinese immigrant parents and grew up in Pasadena. She has a brother. As a child, she was attracted to books about big families, in particular those set in New York City. Glaser moved to New York City for college, where she met her husband.[5]
After Glaser had children, she began writing a blog about being a mother in New York City and was encouraged to continue writing. "As I would walk with my kids and our dog past brownstones in our Harlem neighborhood, I would sometimes think of the cover of one of the All-of-a-Kind Family books, with all the kids spilling out the front door of a brownstone, and that's when I began thinking about the Vanderbeekers."
See main article: The Vanderbeekers. Glaser took a writing course and participated in National Novel Writing Month, which she said resulted in the first draft of The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt bought the manuscript and offered Glaser a contract for two standalone books, the latter of which was published in 2022 as A Duet for Home. Prior to publication of The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, the publisher offered Glaser a contract for a sequel, The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden. One book was published every year through 2023, when the final installment, The Vanderbeekers Ever After, was published.
The books follow the adventures of large multiracial family and their friends and neighbors. Reviewers noted that that books evoke older series about large families in urban settings, including Elizabeth Enright's Melendy family books and Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind Family series[6] [7] [8] —books that Glaser has said influenced The Vanderbeekers.
In 2022, Glaser published a standalone novel called A Duet for Home, a story about two preteens who live in a New York City homeless shelter. Reviewing the book in the New York Times, Padma Venkatraman said the book "revisits three of [the Vanderbeekers'] themes: family, community and home. Readers who love the Vanderbeekers will not be disappointed."[9]
Glaser lives in Harlem. She is married to Dan Glaser; they have two daughters, three cats and two dogs. Glaser attends All Angels' Church.