The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney | Book Review

Flashback Friday Review!

I first read The Face on the Milk Carton when I was in middle school and I loved it.  Me and a bajillion other middle school girls.  I went on to read the sequel, and I believe I read those two over and over again, but I never did make the leap into the third, fourth, or fifth for whatever reason.  Now I'm an adult and I needed some audiobooks for the commute, and so I downloaded the rest of the series.  Before I review those, I'm "completing the record" by doing Flashback Friday reviews of The Face on the Milk Carton and Whatever Happened to Janie?  

As I mentioned, I originally read this when I was in middle school.  I bet Goodreads wasn't even around then!  So I don't have much of a review.  I remember being fascinated by the story, and I think I might have even owned a copy.  If it was anything like the last three books in the series, it wasn't going to win any literary awards, but it definitely won popularity awards.  And it's long-lasting!  We still have these books on our shelves at the library today.

Here's the synopsis from the jacket:  The face on the milk carton looks like an ordinary little girl: hair in tight pigtails, a dress with a narrow white collar, a three-year-old who was kidnapped more than twelve years ago from a shopping mall in New Jersey.

As fifteen-year-old Janie Johnson stares at the milk carton, she feels overcome with shock.  She knows that little girl is she.  But how could it be true?

Janie can't believe that her loving parents kidnapped her, until she begins to piece together clues that don't make sense.  Why are there no pictures of Janie before she was four?  Her parents have always said they didn't have a camera.  Now that explanation feels feeble.  Something is terribly wrong, and Janie is afraid to find out what happened more than twelve years ago.

In this gripping page-turner, the reader will unravel-as Janie does-the twisted events that changed the lives of two families forever.

*I can't remember:  I either owned my copy of The Face on the Milk Carton, borrowed it from the library, or borrowed it from a friend.  I was about twelve.  :)