review number 6: What Janie Found

What Janie Found
by Caroline B. Cooney

• Publication Date: January 11, 2000
• Genres: Fiction
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
• ISBN-10: 0385326114
• ISBN-13: 9780385326117

Summary from Teenreads:

Janie and her two families are back in WHAT JANIE FOUND, the fourth and last book in Caroline B. Cooney's Janie series. Each of the characters is looking for closure of the kidnapping nightmare. Will they be able to find their way home?

Stephen Spring, Janie's older brother, is a student at a college in Boulder, Colorado. He's not sure what he wants to do with his life, but he knows he wants to be as far away from his family as possible. He wants to forget his whole life, which has been lived in the shadow of Janie's disappearance.

Reeve, Janie's boyfriend, isn't sure he wants to stay in college. He loves Janie, but after he told her story to his radio audience, he doubts she will ever love him again. Brian, Janie's younger brother, is getting used to living separately from his twin, Brendon. Janie's sister Jodie will start college in the fall. Everything seems to be going well for all of them.

Janie's life also seems to be moving along smoothly as she adjusts to her two sets of parents and learns to love her brothers and sister. Then her Connecticut father suffers a stroke, and Janie must handle the family finances. While going through files in her father's desk, she makes a startling discovery. This discovery takes her, Reeve, and Brian to Boulder to try to find the reason why Hannah Javensen took Janie away from her family so many years ago.

Finding Hannah could mean betrayal and hurt for both of her families. Is it better to forget revenge and leave the past buried, or to try to locate Hannah? The decision she makes will affect both of her family's lives forever. Can they handle any more? Moreover, can Janie handle dredging up the past, or is it time to forgive?

Cooney has written a thrilling and thoroughly satisfying conclusion to her Janie series, consisting of THE FACE ON THE MILK CARTON, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JANIE?, and THE VOICE ON THE RADIO. Though each book stands alone as a complete story, I recommend reading them in the order they were published, so you will get the most enjoyment out of each of them.

The ending of this series was neither thrilling nor satisfying to me. Again, I was disappointed. Like the one before it, What Janie Found was slow. I really expected the ending to be different. I wanted more action, more confrontation. More drama, I guess. I did love the fact that Janie and her boyfriend were able to work things out... I always thought they were great together. I was also mildly interested in the annoying nosiness of Stephen's girlfriend's morbid curiosity about Janie and her family. Other than that... not impressive. This book also only earned 1.5 Stars from me, and I wondered again if I would have found these books interesting if I had read them 15 years earlier. Maybe I am finally growing up after all.