Module 9: The face on the Milk Carton by Carolyn B. Conney

Picture taken from:

http://www.amazon.com/Face-Milk-Carton-Caroline-Cooney/dp/038532328X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319398407&sr=1-1

Summary:

Janie Johnson discovers her picture on a milk carton for missing children while she is having lunch at school. Janie doesn’t believe that she has been kidnapped by her loving parents, but memories start to come back of a life long forgotten. As the mystery of her past unfolds, Janie discovers that her parents are her grandparents, her supposed mother kidnapped her, and her real family leaves in a nearby suburb. Now Janie must decide what to do to make the horrible past right. Janie discovers the true meaning of family, love, and friendship. 

Citation:

Cooney, C. (1990, March). The face on the milk carton. New York, New York: Bantam Books.

Impression:

The Face on the Milk Carton keeps the readers attention by weaving an elaborate mystery novel matched with a strong plot and well-developed characters. Cooney knows her audience as she writes about a young teenage girl who is faced with falling in love for the first time, friends, and 

parents-all the normal aspects of a realistic young adult novel. What makes this novel stand out is Cooney’s ability to add a sense of mystery that keeps the reader turning pages. 

Reviews:

There's a good bit of melodrama in the plot (a cult-influenced mother and a pair of nervous grandparents hiding from the Hare Krishna), as well as a sort of half-baked romance. But Cooney does not give in to facile resolutions, and her depiction of Jane's personal quandary, while not rendered with depth, seems real enough as it follows the girl's struggle to make sense of what's happened and to balance her feelings for the couple she knows as her parents with her curiosity about the family to which she once belonged.

Citation:

[The face on the milk carton] [book review]. (1990). Booklist, 861154. Retrieved from 

Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com

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This is the kind of paranoid premise that junior high melodramas find highly enjoyable, and Cooney doesn't let them down, filling her story with suspenseful twists. While the plot is appealing and well-paced, the writing is often excessive, abruptly shifting gears between the satiric and the sentimental, and is populated with unlikely imagery: 'Energy spilled out of her like oil from a smashed tanker.' Although this is no match for the similarly situated Taking Terri Mueller by {N.F.} Mazer {BRD 1982} or Amy Ehrlich's Where It Stops, Nobody Knows {BRD 1989}, it's still an involving story.

Citiation

[The face on the milk carton] [book review]. (1990). Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 43133. Retrieved from Retrieved from http://bccb.lis.illinois.edu/

Uses:

• Have a mystery dinner night at the library and showcase a display of mystery books that showcase books like The Face on the Milk Carton.
• Have a missing children awareness month at the library and use the book in a display with related topics and information.