The Face on the Milk Carton
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| Author | Caroline B. Cooney |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Face on a milk carton |
| Cover artist | USA |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jennie Spring/Janie Johnson |
| Genre(s) | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Bantam Dell |
| Released | February 1990 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 184 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-05853-3 |
| Followed by | Whatever Happened to Janie? |
The Face on the Milk Carton is a young adult novel written by Caroline B. Cooney. It is number 68 on the American Library Association's list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.[1]
[edit] Plot summary
Janie Johnson is a normal fifteen year-old girl who has a regular life. She attends high school and wants her driver's license. While at lunch one day, she grabs a friend's milk carton which changes her life. She recognizes the "missing person" photo on the back of the milk carton as a picture of herself. The milk carton says that Jennie Spring was kidnapped from a New Jersey mall when she was three years old. Janie believes the carton must be some type of joke because her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, are very loving parents. Janie tries to put it out of her mind, but she begins having flashbacks of events and people that don't fit in with her mental picture of her life. She "remembers" other children and a woman who is not Mrs. Johnson.
While attempting to discover the truth, Janie stumbles upon items that once belonged to a person named "Hannah." Mr. and Mrs. Johnson explain that Hannah is their daughter, and Janie is Hannah's daughter, their granddaughter. Hannah was a confused child and joined a cult at a young age. She was married to one of the men in her cult and one day showed up on the Johnsons' (then known with the surname Javensen) doorstep with Janie in tow. Hannah returned to her cult, and the Johnsons ran with Janie fearing that the cult would try to get her back. The memories Janie had were probably of her life in the cult before coming to the Johnsons. Janie is relieved that the people she believed were her parents were not kidnappers.
Unfortunately, Janie cannot get the picture on the milk carton or the memories of another family out of her mind. She researches the Spring kidnapping and becomes obssessed with it. She comes to the conclusion that her parents are probably insane and actually did kidnap her. But since she still loves them, she forgives them. She writes the Spring family a letter telling them that she thinks she is Jennie and that she is fine and doesn't want to be found, but she doesn't mail the letter because she is still unsure about what to do. Janie and Reeve take a trip down to New Jersey to see the Spring family with their own eyes. The entire family has the same red hair that Janie has. It is proof that Janie can't ignore, but she tries to anyway. While at school, Janie loses the letter she was writing to the Springs and the decision of whether to tell or not is taken out of her hands. She and Reeve go to her parents and tell them everything they've learned. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are shocked. They figure that Hannah was probably the one who kidnapped Janie; they also decide that the Springs must be called. Janie tries to keep them from telling anyone because she loves them very much so and doesn't want to hurt them. But Janie's mother is adamant, the Springs have been without their daughter for too long. The book ends with Janie talking to her birth mother for the first time since the kidnapping.
The other books in the series are Whatever Happened to Janie?, The Voice On The Radio, and What Janie Found.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
In 1995, The Face on the Milk Carton was combined with Whatever Happened to Janie? and made into a movie for television, distributed by Fox Family (now ABC Family) and starring Kellie Martin.
