93 pages • 3 hours read
Found
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Chapters 4-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
Chip becomes obsessed with understanding his adoption. He and Jonah break into a locked safe in Chip’s basement. Chip wants to find his birth certificate because he’s convinced it will “tell him everything he needed to know” (36). They find the birth certificate, but it doesn’t present any new information. Chip’s full name is Charles Haddingford Winston the third, and he feels like his parents only adopted him because they needed to “have some kid to stick that name on” (40). They also find a note that lists someone named James Reardon and a phone number. Not knowing if this person is connected to the adoption, Chip calls the number. Reardon answers and identifies himself as from the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Jonah ends the call before Chip can say anything.
Chapter 5 Summary
Jonah talks Chip into not calling Reardon back because they do not know if Reardon is even associated with Chip’s adoption. Chip is still angry and hurt about his situation, saying “I just want to know who I am” (45). Jonah confesses that he also wants to know where he came from and what his birth parents were like. He does not dwell on the questions for too long, however, and advises Chip to let his anger go. The phone number will not do any good because Chip is “always going to have more questions” (46). Chip counters by asking if Jonah ever looked for answers to his own questions. Jonah has not.
Chapter 6 Summary
Jonah asks his parents what adoption agency they used and is relieved when it is not the same agency Chip’s parents used. Later, Katherine tells Jonah not to ask questions about the adoption. It drives their parents crazy with worry, and Katherine says it does not matter what his birth parents are like because “it doesn’t change a thing about you” (53). Jonah argues he can tell Katherine is related to their parents by blood because of physical traits she shares with them, such as their father’s prominent nose, which resembles a ski slope. She counters by saying she wonders about who she is just as much as Jonah does, even though she was not adopted. She describes not knowing the right identity to adopt at school the next year: a pretty cheerleader or a basketball jock. The chapter ends with Jonah receiving another letter with no return address. This one says only “beware! They’re coming back to get you” (56).
Chapter 7 Summary
The next morning, Jonah tells Chip about the second letter. Neither boy knows what to do. Jonah feels removed from average middle-school life, like he is “in a completely different dimension” from the other kids on the bus (59). In history class, Jonah has a pop quiz, and his teacher answers the accompanying groans by saying they need to study history “so you know where you come from” (60). This sets Jonah up for a day full of distractions and mishaps.
By the time Jonah gets home, he just wants to watch television and relax. Chip receives more strange letters in the mail. He got one at both his new and old addresses, which destroys the idea that the letters are a prank from someone at school. Katherine tells Jonah their dad left a message for Jonah to call. Jonah does, and his dad relays that someone named James Reardon is now associated with Jonah’s adoption file.
Chapters 4-7 Analysis
“Who am I?” is a major theme of Found. Chip is the first to pose the question in Chapter 5. He believes being adopted changes everything about him. Chip’s questions act as an emotional catalyst for Jonah. For the first time, Jonah truly wonders about his birth parents and where he came from. Jonah remains strong for Chip, but his unconcerned persona begins to crack in these chapters. In Chapter 6, Katherine confesses she wonders who she is, even though she is not adopted. Katherine’s questions about herself aren’t quite the same as Jonah’s or Chip’s, but the fact that she wonders shows that “Who am I?” is a universal question. All kids, adopted or not, grapple with their identity and personality.
Jonah receives a second mysterious letter in Chapter 6, continuing the written records motif. He later learns that each of these notes came from one of the opposing time factions. The second note is a warning and, like the first, is purposefully vague. Following the receipt of this letter, Jonah’s concerns mount. He worries about what the letters mean and finds himself distracted with questions about his adoption. The notes jumpstart Jonah’s character growth.
In Chapter 7, Jonah’s history teacher says people study history to learn where they came from. This foreshadows Jonah, Chip, and the other missing kids actually being from different times in the past. It also foreshadows the book’s ending when Jonah and Katherine accompany Chip into the past to learn where Chip came from.
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