The Face on the Milk Carton
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| The Face on the Milk Carton | |
|---|---|
| Author | Caroline B. Cooney |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Janie Johnson series |
| Genre(s) | Young adult novel |
| Publication date | 1990 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 184 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0316155772 (first edition, paperback) |
| OCLC Number | 54372561 |
| Followed by | Whatever Happened to Janie? |
The Face on the Milk Carton is a young adult novel by American author Caroline B. Cooney and first published in 1990. Part of The Janie Johnson series, it was later adapted into a film for television. It is about a young adult girl who thinks she is kidnapped and tries to find her parents.
[edit] Plot Summary
The Face on the Milk Carton is a book about a 15 year-old high school student in Connecticut, Janie Johnson. One day at lunch she looks at the missing child picture on her friend's milk carton and recognizes the girl in the picture — it is her. The milk carton says the girl, Jennie Spring, was kidnapped from a shopping mall in New Jersey twelve years ago. That afternoon, Janie begins to have flashbacks of a house and a family and herself as a little girl. Her memory from the day of the kidnapping is of herself and a family shoe shopping. She became angry and stormed off, and a woman bought her an ice cream and took her for a ride. However, she doesn't know who this woman is. She can't believe that her parents would have kidnapped her, but she can't come up with any other explanations.
Janie goes to the attic and rummages through the boxes. In them she finds old school papers with the name Hannah, and also the polka dotted white dress she saw on the milk carton. When Janie confronts her parents with this information, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson explain that Hannah is their daughter, and Janie is Hannah's daughter - so, Janie is really 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 at her parents' house with Janie. Hannah returned to her cult, and the Johnsons left with Janie, moving to a different state, and even changing their name from "Javensen" to "Johnson," fearing that the cult would try to get her back. Janie is relieved that the people she believed were her parents were not kidnappers.
However, Janie cannot get the picture on the milk carton or the memories of another family out of her mind. She researches the Spring kidnapping. She comes to the conclusion that her parents are probably insane or lying and actually did kidnap her, but she still loves them. Janie and her boyfriend Reeve skip school the next day and go to New Jersey to see the Spring family with their own eyes. She witnesses Mrs. Spring and her twin boys, with bright red hair, just like Janie has, and which none of the Johnsons have. It's proof that Janie can't ignore, but she tries to anyway. She writes the Spring family a letter, but she doesn't mail the letter because she is still unsure about what to do. While at school, Janie loses the letter she was writing to the Spring 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. Reeve's lawyer sister, Lizzie, figures that Hannah was probably the one who kidnapped Janie; they also decide that the Spring family must be called. At the end of the book Mrs. Johnson calls the Spring family and Janie talks to what might be her real mother for the first time after 12 years. The last words of the book are "Hi, It's your daughter. Me. Jennie."
