Janie's Private Eyes

Stanley Family #4

by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

One by one, dogs are disappearing from thirteen-year-old David Stanley's neighborhood. Who could be taking people's pets? David's eight-year-old sister Janie has just founded the J.V. Stanley detective agency and she's determined to find out. It looks like a case of dognapping, and neighbors are accusing her friends the Trans, a Vietnamese family new to the area. In no time at all David fins himself, Thuy and Huy Tran, and the rest of the Stanley family involved in a search for a missing poodle. But solving crimes can be dangerous, even deadly. Before long, Janie's private eyes are up to their necks in danger and it's up to David to get them out of it!

"This fourth book about the eccentric but believable Stanleys and their madcap adventures stands well on its own. . . . Funny and fast-paced."--Kirkus Reviews

"The mystery is credibly solved in a nicely crafted story that has suspense, humor, and natural dialogue."--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"A funny and quick read that fans of the Stanley family will enjoy. . . ."--School Library Journal

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens, Middle Grade, Dogs, Fantasy

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Zilpha Keatley Snyder was an American author of books for children and young adults. Three of Snyder's works were named Newbery Honor books: The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid and The Witches of Worm. She was most famous for writing adventure stories and fantasies.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 year old genius Janie Stanley fancies herself a detective. When dogs in town start turning up missing, and her new Vietnamese friends are blamed, Janie ropes David, Amanda, David's friend Pete and the twins into investigating. Despite the eventual dog-nappers being pretty easily telegraphed right from the beginning, it is still entertaining to read about the Stanley kids capers. I just realized that the three sequels to The Headless Cupid are not nearly as supernatural as it was, but even though that was my favorite thing about said novel, you don't really miss that element. I would really like to know more about Blair and how he just knows things (and, it seems silly for the other characters to still be dismissing his comments and premonitions even though he's proven right over and over). Unfortunately, this is the last Stanley family book. I suppose it's still possible for Snyder to write more; even though she's 85 years old, she's still writing excellent children's books.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It had a fun story with some nice plot twists, but the greater focus seemed to be on the characters. As 13-year-old David tries to solve the mystery of the missing dogs, he finds a way to combine it with his school project, killing two birds with one stone. Well, except there's another monkey wrench in his plans: his 8-year-old sister Janie, who thinks she can solve the mystery herself.

Make no mistake about it: while this is David's story, and told from his perspective, Janie easily steals every scene she's in. She's full of energy, thinks highly of herself and believes herself to be very intelligent, has a lot of knowledge of things relating to mysteries and police work from her exposure to books and related material about it, and comes up with a lot of plans. Plans that she acts on without necessarily getting approval from others. Plans that are naive and childlike. Plus, her views of the world are naturally limited to a third grader's perspective.

Early on, Janie investigates a "murder" that did not really occur, and her antics include getting fingerprints from the mailman's steering wheel (with help from a chemistry kit she got for Christmas), hiring a 4-year-old to act as a distraction, and using a tape recorder to secretly record a conversation at a commonly used bench - in the belief that whoever sat there would discuss the murder. Even with all these attempts at investigation going embarrassingly wrong, Janie doesn't give up, and soon turns her attention to the dog abductions. Before long, David has to try to reign her in, as she happily runs off without him and does her own thing, causing at-times hilarious chaos where she goes.

David, on the other hand, is more grounded and calm. His investigating techniques are more standard, but he gets in enough trouble to be entertaining as well. Suspense begins to heat up when things get more serious, and threatening, and even Janie's comic antics end up putting her in danger as well.

I have to say that David was just not that interesting of a character. While I didn't dislike him, I liked all his siblings more. Rude, semi-tomboyish 15-year-old Amanda, slightly offbeat 6-year-old Blair, who "knows things" and has premonitions (and manages to creep out other characters in the process), and 6-year-old Esther/Tesser were all more interesting and quirky than David, who was basically the "straight man" in this comedy cast of amateur detectives. But on the other hand, seeing things from David's perspective as he deals with the investigation was also a nice way to get to know his family as he knows them, and see their quirks from an outsider's perspective.

I have to say, the plot itself has a few twists but I found it pretty standard overall. It had some nice suspenseful moments and even a really funny moment involving Janie, but what I enjoyed the most about this book wasn't so much the plot as the characters. How the characters act, relate to each other and others, and what they -do-, was far more interesting than what happened -to- them. This is a slightly more character-driven than plot-driven story, and a very fun one. Definitely worth checking out if you'd like to read a mystery with suspense, humor, and slightly quirky personality.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as the previous ones. David, the main character, mainly runs around discovering things after the fact, and reacting while others do the leg-work. The characters are still engaging and true to their personalities as established in earlier books, but this one is definitely a step down from the earlier books in the series.

[Adrien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, but easily the weakest of the four. But it's still Zilpha and still the Stanleys, so well worth the read.

[Cheryl]

After reading Blair's Nightmare and not really appreciating where Snyder was taking the series, and seeing the reviews for this one that make it sound workmanlike and genre, I've decided to skip it. After all, I don't particularly like Janie or believe in her, and apparently this one is told from David's pov yet again, and I don't particularly like mysteries... well, there's nothing left to draw me in.

January 2022

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this family and this series, and I'm honestly a little sad that this was the last book. The mystery was easily solvable, but that isn't a bad thing for a book written for this age group, and the kids continue to be just as cute (and zany) as the previous books. I think Amanda, especially, saw some great character growth. I'm glad I continued reading the series that stemmed from one of my childhood favorites.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a couple of kids who are trying to figure out who is dognapping the dogs in their town.

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine ending to the series.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not interesting enough to read the rest of the series but very good

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun YA mystery with interesting characterization, even if it leans a little into stereotyping (the troublemaker kids, the kid caught between troublemaker kids and wanting to be good).

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a bit of unfortunate cultural stereotyping that has a Vietnamese family accused of dognappings for, what else?, eating dogs, but it's also a rare case of two Vietnamese kids taking a lead in children's books. Sometimes, presences is better than absence. And at the end of the day, Snyder dismisses the stereotype by revealing the true dognappers. While the series veered wildly from its supernatural beginnings (and what got me hooked on the Stanley Family series), these books are still thoroughly satisfying.

[Desiivy]

Not as good as the others in this series, But it focused on my favorite character Janie.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of that mystery series I'm not crazy about.