The Face On The Milk Carton Summary

In the book The Face on The Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney, the main character is Janie Johnson, a 15 year-old girl, that is lactose intolerant, has red, curly hair and lives in Connecticut, New York. After one day of school, she begins to question who her real parents are because she thinks that she saw herself on a missing child poster. With that in mind, this story would fit into the mystery, fiction, and young adult fiction genre.

On this particular part of the book, the rising conflict makes it one of the most hooking parts of the book. During lunch, Janie would normally drink some sort of juice (since she’s lactose intolerant), but today she was feeling adventurous and decides to drink milk. On the bottom of the milk carton, the

nearby dairy farm puts missing child posters. Kids normally would never look at them, but this time she looked and saw herself on there. On the image, it said she a different name, said that she was from a different state, and was taken when she was three. Jaine took a ride home with Reeve, and they took a drive down towards the river. After she thought about it for a while, she began to be a 50 50. Meaning that she was 50% with the idea that she was kidnapped; 50% with the idea that it wasn’t her on the missing child poster. The only thing that kept her thinking that she was kidnapped is because of the hair. She had red, curly, and hard to handle hair. This wasn’t very often that you saw someone with this kind of hair.
Then, a memory came she remembers the dress that she was wearing in the photo. She remembers how it awkwardly fit her, how it was itchy, and just the dress in general. Having that memory, only made things worse. Now, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She went home, and didn’t say anything but she went through the attic and was looking for young child pieces/memories/pictures. As she was going through the stuff in the attic, she ran across the same dress that she was wearing in the picture. She decided that she had thought enough about this and that she should just sleep it off, so she did. After school the next day, she gained enough courage that she was going to confront her “parents”. So she explained everything that happened, and her “parents” said that they were actually her grandparents. They explained that her mom was Hannah, and that she was in a cult, and didn’t want to endanger you. The cult that Hannah joined is called is the “Hanny Christains.’’
Now that she knows this, she feels that she needs to filter to someone, but never does.

Later that day she goes over to her friends house Reeve (neighbor), and helps him rake leaves. She has always liked him, and they have always been close. He then leans in and kisses her out of nowhere. After this, he runs off inside and leaves her outside in the pile of leaves. She then sleeps everything off and wakes up the next morning. She then has the idea to skip school. So, Janie and Reeve decide to skip school and drive to New Jersey. New Jersey was where she was taken/kidnapped from the mall. She then realizes that she must have been kidnapped from another family, because no one in her family (her mom or grandparents) has that kind of red hair. So she looks up the last name that she had on the missing child poster. She then finds out who her real family is and tries to see them in New Jersey, but she has mixed feelings again. One side of her is saying that they haven’t seen their baby in close to 12 years and need to see her. The other half of her is thinking, they probably moved on and besides I already have grown a bond with my “grandparents.” Having those mixed thoughts, she decides that she is going to write a letter to her real “family.” She writes the letter and then loses it.And as if it wasn’t bad enough, she lost it at school. So on top of the fact that someone might just go mail it for her, there was also a possibility for her business to be spread across the school

(which isn’t what she needed right now). Janie now comes forward to her “grandparents” and confronts them with the news that she has. So she tells them that when she looked up the Jennie Spring kidnapping, that their is a spring family who also has the same kind of red hair. Her point of telling them, is to say that basically they aren’t even related because they have no qualities to share, but she still loves them.
In the end, this was a great young-adult fiction novel. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading series books (this is one book out of 4). This book was definitely able to make young teens relate to the book, was what made it interesting to read. Although this was supposed to hook the reader, it didn’t keep me very interested.