Janie's Private Eyes

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Summary: janie's private eyes
Review: Janie is the manie person in this story. She founds the J.V stanley agense.She helps a veittamess family who work at a nursey.Janies is friends with one of the children. Her name is Thuy. Janie says she she has a IQ of 145.Janie and the twins Blair and Ester and Thuy and Huy go out to find the dognappers who takeing the dogs in their town.David the older brother and Amanda the stepsister get involed.Mean while David and his friend Pete are doing a report on the missing dogs.Soon everyone is rapped up in the mysterey and their dog Nightmare gets stolen.

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Summary: A decent ending to a series of good books
Review: Of course, the reason I found out about Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Janie's Private Eyes was because I read her absolutely wonderful book, The Headless Cupid, the first installment of the Stanley family. By the time I got to this book, which is the fourth and final part of the family saga, it was like the Stanleys had never even known the life they lived in The Headless Cupid. In THC, David and his siblings were all very quiet, thoughtful, mysterious, and over-all interesting. His step-sister, Amanda, was a very well-developed cahracter and was one of the best parts of the book. If you've ever read any E. L. Konigsburg (particularly From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) you kind of have a general idea of what kind of style Snyder was writing in THC. Kind of mysterious and creepy, but not really in the "horror" genre of terrifying. One of the best things about THC was that the writing style and the characters were so interesting and different.

Well, when you get finished with Janie's Private Eyes, you could swear that you were reading some kidn of mediocore-to-bad Jerry Spinelli book. (I'm not criticizing Spinelli, I'm just using him as an example). The Stanleys have lost their mysterious, subdued aura and have become an average, boring family. Although the characters are a little more tolerable in Janie's Private Eyes than they were the book's prequel, Blair's Nightmare, they are all very plain and boring American kids.

Now that I'm through writing about the characters, I'll tell you about the plot. In this story, the Stanley family loses their beloved Irish Wolfhound, Nightmare (yeah, the same one in Blair's Nightmare), and Janie organizes a club out of the five kids to get him back. Of course, there are many sub-plots in the story, but that's just the main premise. Since Janie's Private Eyes is very hard to find in bookstores, I'd recommend that you check it out form your library. Although it has absolutely nothing to do with The Headless Cupid, you may still end up liking it.

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Summary: Janie- the detective
Review: The Stanley family is never a usual family. They never have natural projects to do, like building a tree house or such- instead, they have projects of becoming super naturalists, of getting out of a kidnapper's hideout, and also, a project of finding out a case of missing dogs. Lead by Janie Stanley, head of the J. V. Stanley Private Eyes, Inc. the whole Stanley family children and their friends intend this time to discover the secret of the missing neighborhood dogs. After a round of interviewing and investigating, accidents with the police and their parents, the Stanley's own dog, Nightmare, is stolen. However, at this, Janie deduces who had stolen all the dogs and go on a hunt. At the end, all the dogs are returned to their owners and the case is solved- all done by the marvelous J.V. Stanley Private Eyes Inc.
I have enjoyed Janie's Private Eyes because the Stanley family is so different from other people. I have never known anyone like Janie or her family; with such tangibility to get into scrapes. Of course, it is probably very annoying to live with someone as loud, smart, and obnoxious as Janie, but it is very interesting to hear and read about it. I am a lot like her, for I also talk too much, I am not particularly obedient, I can also be extremely annoying with my logic. In addition, I have never lived in a large country house before, out where it is all grass and miles from other people. It is very interesting, and I have enjoyed reading this book.
My favorite part of the story is when the Stanley family children go to the police station. It is so weird how Janie would be excited about going there; since most people, including me, are not only frightened in talking to the police, and even more so to enter the police station- whether guilty or innocent. Hearing how the police question Janie and her sister, Amanda, of who are both very uncooperative in their own ways is funny. Especially Janie, since she is so eager to get fingerprinted and mug shotted. I mean, how can anyone want to be fingerprinted? Would you?