The Face On The Milk Carton (1996) - Plot & Excerpts
I read the book, The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney. It was published in 1990 by Dell Books for Young Readers. Cooney is the author of many other books that include Driver’s Ed and the sequel to Face on the Milk Carton, Whatever Happened to Janie? Now, I admit I’ve only read this one book by Cooney, but based on this first experience there’s no way that I would ever read any of her other novels. Frankly, I’m not even sure why a publisher would agree to print this book. Perhaps the more important question is why the school system feels like this is a book that children would benefit from reading. In my opinion this is a shallow and poorly written book.The book is about a girl named Janie Johnson, a sophomore in high school that sees her face on a milk carton, and realizes that she’s been kidnapped. This is the first problem that I have with the book. Why is it that a kidnapping that occurred over twelve years ago is still being published on these milk cartons? Secondly, I find it very unlikely that this girl would be able to recognize herself after all of these years. After she sees this picture, she sets out trying to find out about her past and where she came from. Along with her on this journey is her neighbor, Reeve, a senior going to the same high school as her. Somehow this boy finds a way to put up with Janie’s constant nagging and crying about trying to find her real parents, which is essentially all that happens in the middle hundred pages of the book. This is the worst part of the book for me, because every two pages you have to read about her “daymares” which really don’t seem all that scary because they’re just flashbacks of her eating ice cream. Sounds like a pretty nice time to me, but for some reason for her that triggers some kind of panic attack and she freaks out. Despite all of her problems though, for some reason Reeve falls in love with her. These two love birds share a romantic kiss in a pile of leaves. “The kiss was long. And serious. Serious like my hair...” (47), this is my favorite quote from the book for its comical effect. I don’t want to spoil the book, but I’m just trying to spare any future readers of this book the pain of reading this book all the way through to the end. She eventually finds her real parents, and her parents that she’s had didn’t actually kidnap her. It was her parents’ crazy daughter that was a part of some cult that kidnapped her. So eventually Janie calls her real parents, and I kid you not this is how the book ends, “‘Hi. It’s...your daughter. Me. Jennie.’” (184). This is probably the most disappointing ending I’ve ever read. Nothing actually ever gets answered in the end. For all we know this isn’t even really her parents she’s talking to. After all this time that the reader’s tolerated Janie’s incessant whining about her parents we don’t even get to know whether she actually meets them. I guess it’s appropriate though, a disappointing ending to a disappointing book.If you couldn’t already tell based on what I’ve already said about this book, I woulnd’t recommend this book to anyone. It’s classified as a mystery novel, but there’s hardly any mystery in it at all. A mystery is supposed to make you think and wonder what’s going to happen. This book doesn’t trigger any of these responses in the reader. That’s what makes it such a boring book in my opinion. The book is also way too shallow, and the plot is way too simple and predictable. In my opinion books are much more interesting when the information is much more than what you’re actually reading. In this book however, what you read is what you get, and when what you’re reading isn’t good you’re not going to enjoy it at all. These are just a few of the many issues that I have with the book. Once again I would highly suggest avoiding this book at all costs.
First of all, I'm not big on the young adult genre. I read it because it's what's available, but generally I don't like it because most of the "young adults" I know are perfectly capable of reading "adult" books, but choose young adult books because they're shorter and easier. In other words I think it's a genre based largely on laziness. Don't get me wrong, the stories can be excellent; but the whole idea of writing easier, shorter books for young people who don't feel like challenging themselves makes me sick.This book was not too bad, all things considered. I liked that the story moved along at a good pace without dragging too much on one subject. The whole topic of this story was a very interesting subject and raises some difficult personal and ethical questions. If you know where a kidnapping victim is, and you don't tell her parents, are you just as guilty as the kidnapper? What if the victim doesn't want you to tell her parents? How old would she have to be before she can make that decision herself? Can she ever? After I read this book I was in the car on the way to a doctor's appointment with my mother, and she asked me, "What would you do if you were Janie?" I honestly have no idea.I also liked the mystery. I tend to enjoy books in which the main character's origins are something of a mystery, and are found out over the course of the story. I like to see how the character incorporates the new information they learn about themselves into their personal view of themselves. Janie suddenly discovering that she was, somehow, a kidnapping victim was an excellent base for a story, and it was fairly well-executed.For the most part, the characters were cardboard. Janie's parents and Reeve (Reece? I don't remember his name, sorry) weren't too bad, but the other students at the school, Sarah-Charlotte, Adair, etc., were nothing more than names. They served no real purpose and it feels like they were only there because the author decided that a normal sophomore girl would have a lot of friends. Janie, on the other hand, was very good. I remember being fifteen -- it wasn't that long ago -- and she thinks and acts very convicingly like a real fifteen-year-old girl would: emotional, unsure of her self. It's easy to relate to her.Overall, the book was all right. Not something I would read again, but not something I regret reading, either. The most frustrating thing about this book was the cliffhanger at the end. Enough to irritate the crap out of me, but not enough to make me go out and buy the sequels.
What do You think about The Face On The Milk Carton (1996)?
In the novel The Face On The Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney is about how a girl named Janie was stolen when she was three, but she never knew. Until one day, she sees a milk carton that has a girls face and says that she is missing. She realized that the little girl in the carton was her.She soon has thoughts about if her parents are really her parents or the kidnappers.She soon discovers many things that she wished she had never known.She found out that her parents had a daughter and she ran away to New Jersey.So the parents went to New Jersey and got her daughter who was really Janie.Because of all that confusion Janie skipped school with her boyfriend named Reeve. They both deiced to go to New Jersey because thats where her real parents live, and find information about her real parent. Janie found out that she has three brothers. They both seen enough and soon came back to Janie's house and her parent that were worried sick because they were afraid that Janie might run away as their daughter had once done.So Janie decides to tell her parents about the ride to New Jersey.Later on Janie's parents decide that Janie should call her real parents and tell the the truth of what had really happen.At the end Janie's mom call to New Jersey and once a women picked up the phone, Janie said,"Hi. It's... your daughter.Me.Janie." This book is awesome because it tells a story that connects to the real world.i recommend this book to any one because it's a wonderful book to read and interesting.Rating:*****
—Karina Magana
This book is about how a girl named Janie was stolen when she was three, but she never knew. Until one day, she sees a milk carton that has a girls face and says that she is missing. She realized that the little girl in the carton was her.She soon has doughts about if her parents are really her parents or the kidnappers.She soon discovers many things that she wished she had never known. She found out that her parents had a daughter and she ran away to New Jersey. One day that missing daughter had come back with a child in her hands and that child was her.Because of all that confusion Janie skipped school with her boyfriend/neighboor named Reeve. They went to New Jersey and found the house of her real parents.They observed the house and found out that Janie has three brothers. They soon came back to janie's house and her parent or grandparents were worried sick.they were afraid that Janie might run away as their daughter had once done.Janie decides to tell her parents about the ride to New Jersey. They decide that Janie should call her real parents and tell the the truth. This book is amazing because a it tell a story that may have happened somewhere in the real world. I give this book four stars and recommend this book to any one because it's interesting and is cool book to read.
—Steven
I was in the sixth grade. We were having one of those Scholastic book orders that made reading so exciting. This book caught my attention. What could be more captivating than a book about a kid finding out they're kidnapped?!! I begged my mom to order it and she did. Shortly thereafter, the book was in my hands, and suddenly I was ashamed. I was a boy on the verge of junior high school. I watched sports, liked cars and video games. I was too cool for a book with a pig-tailed girl on the cover.Some time later that year, this kid named Joey mentioned the book. He was cool. He asked if I'd read it. Was this a trap? “I have a copy—but only because my mom wanted to read it,” I said. He said he'd read the book and it was awesome, that I should definitely read it. Again, part of me wanted to read The Face on the Milk Carton, but I really didn't have time for it. I was going to get a Z shaved on the side of my head, work for Ferrari, and sing backup for Bobby Brown: I was way too cool for books.I wish I'd listened to Joey. I probably would've liked this book more as a twelve year old than as a thirty-five year old. That being said, I was surprised by how much I did enjoy the novel as an adult. No, it's not some great work of literature. But what it is is captivating. I was enthralled by what Janie would do. I was pulled in, reading chapter after chapter in a single sitting. Was I captivated enough to read the rest of the books in the series? No. Nevertheless, The Face on the Milk Carton was a wonderful ride of adolescent “what ifs.”One thing that surprised me about this novel was the amount of sex. Had I read it back in grade school as was the original plan, I probably would've been ashamed and confused by what I'd read. In my opinion, The Face on the Milk Carton is more a young adult novel than a child's story. Damn Scholastic for trying to corrupt my youth!And what's up with Janie's lactose intolerance? It's constantly being mentioned. Girl cannot consume dairy without dire consequence. Apt condition to have given the title? Perhaps. But what kind of pizza is this girl eating? Does heated cheese somehow not qualify as dairy? How does the writer and the editors miss this contradiction?Despite its flaws in logic and storytelling, The Face on the Milk Carton was a great adventure. I didn't learn anything, I wasn't moved by the condition of these characters, but I was entertained. And if that is the point of this book, then the author succeeded. Thanks, Joey. It took over twenty years, but you finally convinced me.
—Chris Blocker
