I am reviewing Whatever Happened to Janie? This book was written by Caroline B. Cooney and is the sequel to The Face on the Milk Carton. This was a wonderful sequel and met my expectiatations. The characters were real, however, I do still feel that the story line is a little far fetched.
The Face on the Milk Carton left off with Janie phoning her real parents. In Whatever Happened to Janie? Janie goes to live with her real parents. During the stay, Janie acts like a complete brat. At the end of the book, Janie decides to live with her parents in Conneticut, her real parents agree and Janie moved back.
This was a good book and I recommend it to younger audiences. I thought that it was a great sequel to The Face on the Milk Carton and is defiantely worth reading. ( )

Wow I almost forgot about this book til it showed up on my "recommendations." I read this book in elementary school and I remember loving it. Its a follow up to the book "Face On the Milk Carton" which is also a great book. If I remember correctly they also made it into a movie. Good read for young people. ( )

Janie goes and meets her real family,
And nobody is quit sure what happened to her

keeps me on edge every time i read it.

Megan Reed
EDCI 4120
7/30/08
Cooney, C. (1993). Whatever happened to Jane? New York: Delacorte Press
Grade Levels: 8-12
Category: Realistic Fiction
Read Alouds: pp. 108-119(Police come to the Springs house to ask about the kidnapping); pp. 62-75(The Springs let Janie call her other parents); pp. 172-177(Janie get a letter from her biological mother)
Summary: Janie/Jennie is sent to live with her biological family after everyone finds out about her kidnapping. Everyone involved thought the only thing that was fair would be to send her back. Janie didn’t really want to go. She was afraid what would happen to the Johnsons and she didn’t want to leave her comfortable life. In this book we got to see many peoples point of view including Janie and her brother and sister. When Janie moved in with her biological family she wasn't allowed to communicate with anyone from her other life. She was completely miserable because she is always worrying about her other parents and how they are doing without her. She isn’t very nice to her biological family because she thought that would be betraying her other family. Eventually her biological family let her talk to her other family. Janie didn’t try very hard to get along with her biological family. Eventually Janie realized that not everybody can be happy and she is going to hurt somebody so she told her real mom that she wanted to go back to her other family. They let her go for the second time in their lives.
Themes: Identity is a big theme in this book. Janie/ Jennie struggles throughout the book with who she thinks she really is. She knows that biologically she is Jennie Spring but she was raised with her other parents and grew up being Janie Johnson. Another theme is family. Janie has two families that she ends up caring about in the end. Unfortunately she does have to choose between the two families. Anger is a big issue in this book. Janie’s biological family voices their anger in a violent manner when they talk about Hannah the women that kidnapped her. Janie’s brother and sister are always voicing their anger toward Janie.
Discussion Questions: Could Janie have been happy if she stayed with the Spring’s? Why was her birthday the last straw for Janie? If her brother and sister found Hannah what would they have done to her?
Reader Response: I liked this book better than the first book. It was interesting because you knew what Janie’s brother and sister were thinking so it wasn’t just Janie’s thoughts. I was bored with just Janie. She kept on repeating the same things over and over again so this book was more interesting. I really ended up feeling bad for both of Janie’s families. It would have been a terrible choice to make. It’s hard to say if she made the right choice, I guess I will find out when I read the next book n the series.