Module 9: Mystery

Module 9/SLIS5420

The Face on the Milk Carton

By  Caroline B Cooney

Summary:

The Face on the Milk Carton is a young adult book that asks the question- what would you do if you saw your face on a milk carton?  Jennie Spring is just an average 15 year old in highschool with a group of good friends.  However, it all starts to change when she recognizes her own face on the back of a milk carton.  The book follows Jennie as she starts trying to figure out if she was kidnapped, deal with the questions should I ask my parents, struggles with the conclusive proof that the picture on the milk carton is indeed her.  Everything culminating with a call to “her real mom’?

Citation:

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

Beyond and Between:

Caroline Cooney does a great job at writing about the realities of dealing with the question ‘was I kidnapped as a kid?’  The mystery, the hurt feelings, the desire to know the truth, but still love her “parents” who raised her.  After reading this book, the reader almost wants to ask themselves, would I ever really want to find out my parents are not really my parents??  The realities of teenage life, school, and friends makes this book feel real and you cannot help but relate to Jennie’s struggles.  Though, this book has a clear female main character, the issues of belonging, family relationships, and friendships makes this book engaging for guys and girls to read.

Reviews:

School Library Journal

FR 7-10- The message on the milk carton reads, “Have you seen this child?” Three year old Jennie Spring was kidnapped 12 years earlier, but Janie Johnson, looking at the photo, suddenly knows that she is that child. Fragments of memory and evidence accumulate and when she demands to know about her early childhood years, her parents confess what they believe to be true, that she is really their grandchild, the child of their long-missing daughter who had joined a cult.  Janie wants to accept this, but she cannot forget Jennie’s family and their loss. Finally, almost against her will, she seeks help and confides in her parents. Her mother insists that she call the Spring family, and the book ends as she calls them. Many young people fantasize about having been adopted or even kidnapped but the decisions Janie must face are painful and complex and she experiences denial, anger, and guilt while sorting her way toward a solution. Janie’s boyfriend- sensible, funny, with problems of his own- is an excellent foil for her intensity. Their romance is natural and believable. Cooney again demonstrates an excellent ear for dialogue and a gift for portraying responsible middle-class teenagers trying to come to terms with very real concerns. A good choice for readers of Norma Fos Mazer’s Taking Terri Muller (Morrow, 1983). – Tatiana Castleton, Stockton- San Joaguin County Public Library, CA

Castleton, T. (1990). The Face on the Milk Carton (Book). School Library Journal, 36(2), 109.

Booklist Review

Cooney, Caroline. Face on the Milk Carton. 1990. Delacorte, $15.95 (0-385-32328-X); paper, $5.50 (0-440-22065-3).

Gr. 6-9. In a book that generated several sequels and a television movie, 15-year-old Janie sees a picture of her younger self, identified as a kidnapped child, on the side of a milk carton and is forced to seek the truth of her past.

Zvirin, S. (2001, May 1). Face on the Milk Carton. Booklist, 97(17), 1610.

Suggested Uses:

This book would be perfect for an interactive book display where the teens are encouraged to “name that book” based on the clues given in the display.  I one regard this display will be about mystery books, but on the other hand the students would be engaged in figuring out what the book titles are. For example, for this book I would get a milk carton with a face on the back of it.  Of course, the item itself being the clue to what the book title is and at the same time hopefully causing curious minds to want to read the book as well.