The Face on the Milk CartonAuthor: Caroline B. Cooney
Series: Janie Johnson (#1)
Publisher: RandomHouse
How Received: FreeCycle
No one ever really paid close attention to the faces of the missing children on the milk cartons. But as Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl with her hair in tight pigtails, wearing a dress with a narrow white collar—a three-year-old who had been kidnapped twelve years before from a shopping mall in New Jersey—she felt overcome with shock. She recognized that little girl—it was she. How could it possibly be true?
Janie can't believe that her loving parents kidnapped her, but as she begins to piece things together, nothing makes sense. Something is terribly wrong. Are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson really Janie's parents? And if not, who is Janie Johnson, and what really happened?
The Face on the Milk Carton was one of the books I got in a whole bunch of books my mom got off of FreeCycles. (More on how you can do that in another future post.) It looked interesting, so I placed it on my top pile of books to read.
I'm glad I did, it was a good book!
I loved this story - the way it was written, the characters, everything. It didn't have enough description for my taste, and I didn't exactly see the story in my mind like a movie the way I normally do, but I enjoyed the plot line very much. The only thing that really bothered me was the fact that she leaves the book off with a cliff-hanger. Caroline didn't originally intend to write a follow up, but she did... it's in my room somewhere, on my list of things to read - one of the other three, anyway. I have The Voice on the Radio.
Overall Rating & Final Comments: Eight out of ten - it would have been more if not for the cliffhanger ending and the lack of 'going to the movie' feeling.
The Face on the Milk Carton or ...?: I've never read anything quite like this book. The only thing I can compare to it is Does This Make My Head Look Big or Sloppy Firsts because of the age group, but the plot line isn't similar at all.
Happy reading!
~Nicole B.
Oh! I think I read that one years and years ago. All I can remember about it, apart from the things that you mention, is that she had red hair and the rest of her family didn't. I think?
ReplyDeleteOne of my all time favorite books. There are a number of sequels which are also good. It was even made into a TV movie starring Kelli Martin.
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