Like many fictional families before them, the warm, vibrant Vanderbeeker family of 141st Street — 13-year-old twins Jessie and Isa, 10-year-old Oliver, 8-year-old Hyacinth and 6-year-old Laney — has developed a devoted following. The third and newest installment of Karina Yan Glaser’s series featuring the multiracial clan that lives and works in a Harlem brownstone, THE VANDERBEEKERS TO THE RESCUE (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 368 pp., $16.99; ages 8 to 12), is almost a case study in why these kinds of series are so captivating for young readers: Above all, while the happy ending might be a foregone conclusion, there is great satisfaction in seeing how their favorite characters untangle the knot this time.

This latest story is set in motion when a local magazine wants to feature Mama’s home baking business. Life intervenes and the Vanderbeekers never get around to making their beloved brownstone Instagram-ready. Now it’s five days before the big photo shoot. The living room walls could use a good patching and some paint. Isa has an important audition on the day of the shoot, and the day after is Mama’s 40th birthday! But before they can tackle the spackle, the kids inadvertently botch a home bakery inspection by New York State that threatens to close Mama’s oven doors forever. Worse, someone starts leaving homeless animals in their backyard. The already beleaguered Vanderbeekers ind themselves caring for seven chickens, five kittens, two guinea pigs and a dog, plus their own menagerie, which includes Franz the basset hound, George Washington the cat and Paganini the rabbit.

Can the resourceful sibs schedule a new inspection, plan Mama’s birthday party, repaint the brownstone and solve the mystery of who is dumping abandoned pets on their doorstep, all before the photo shoot? Savvy series buffs know all signs point to yes, despite the herculean hurdles.

Children facing challenges in real life find tremendous comfort in the fictional familiar. When Oliver selects a bedtime book during the height of his family’s troubles, he’s not in the mood “for anything suspenseful or new; he wanted a story where he knew everything would turn out all right.” This feeling particularly resonates now, as adult problems like climate change and gun violence, so prevalent in the news, can feel overwhelming and unmanageable to children. What a relief and a release to enter a world where obstructions can be overcome with a little ingenuity, elbow grease and self-confidence. As Laney wisely states, “It’s only impossible if we give up.”

Unfortunately, not all of life’s problems can be fixed with a can-do attitude. The Vanderbeekers’ adored upstairs neighbor, 86-year-old Mr. Jeet, who suffered a stroke in the second book, has grown ever more frail. Animal-loving Laney and Hyacinth are devastated when they learn what might eventually happen to the five homeless kittens if they drop them off at the local city shelter, and Isa’s critical audition doesn’t exactly go as planned.

But often circumstances turn around because their positivity is noticed and appreciated by folks in a position to lend a hand. New helpers from the community include the exuberant Cassandra, a vet tech at their local animal hospital who breathlessly doles out free vaccinations and aphorisms. (“‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ as someone — I have no idea who! — once said. What a wise person, right?”) We also meet Shirley Adelaide Chester, a kind dachshund owner who steps in with crucial information that could save Mama’s business.

Their curmudgeonly yet kind landlord, Mr. Beiderman, neatly sums up one of the central themes of this heartfelt series when he reassures the downcast siblings: “The universe is big, much bigger than you and me and bigger than any of our mistakes. There are always opportunities to forgive and be forgiven.” Teaching erring children to be gracious adults who forgive: Isn’t that divine?