A review by leighannsherwin
Claudia and Mean Janine by Ann M. Martin

4.0

It's funny how age changes your perspective on things. I'm sure when I read this as a kid I sided with Claudia. After being a little sister myself (although I have a brother not a sister) I often was reduced to being Chris's sister which was either good or bad depending on where I was. I thought he was mean, he probably thought I was a pain in the ass. But now as a wizened old lady I see things a lot different. I was Janine all along. Living in the shadow of an outgoing, popular, adventurous sibling, while all I wanted to do was stay home and read my book. I failed to see any time where Janine was mean in this book. Claudia however was nasty to her sister. So let's dive in shall we? The book starts shortly after the wedding inn the previous book. After the relative success of their large baby sitting job the girls decide to run a morning play group. The usual hijinks ensue, Karen is the worst as always. I can't believe I ever liked her. Jenny Prezzios is insufferable in her fancy clothes, she doesn't like Karen so that's a positive at least. Poor Louie is forced to have a bath before the big move which is funny and very messy but again I'm glad I don't have kids. Claudia and her family are about to face huge changes. Mimi suffers a stroke and is forced to learn everything again and this is where some of the conflict with Janine comes in. It seems she's not helping much around the house. Of course Claudia never asks her to help and their parents seem to think she should be focused on her studies. It all comes to head at last and Janine puts Claudia in her place and they reach an understanding. I was kind of sad that there weren't many nostalgia moments except maybe that the kids didn't have their heads buried in iPods and tablets. I didn't remember much about this story either. Some of it came back to me not a lot. Maybe I repressed it because of how horrible Claudia was, making the title misleading. Poor Janine, I hope her sister treats her better now. The book ends with the set up for book eight with Stacey and Mary Anne heading to See City.