THE FACE ON THE MILK CARTON
Caroline B. Cooney
Laurel Leaf
Fiction
ISBN: 0440220653
184 pages

When Janie Johnson discovers her face on a milk carton, her world crashes down around her. If she is really Jennie Spring, the girl in the missing person photograph, and if she was kidnapped when she was three, whose child is she?

Then, Janie discovers the trunk in the attic with more incriminating evidence. She wonders, who is Hannah and why does the trunk contain an exact duplicate of the dress the girl on the milk carton is wearing? The story her parents tell her is even more bizarre than being kidnapped from a shopping mall.

At first Janie is relieved, but when she checks out the address of the Springs in New Jersey, she finds another shock in a series of mind-numbing emotional incidents. Janie silently wrestles with the question, is she Janie Johnson, or is she Jennie Spring from New Jersey? Ultimately, Janie must make the hardest decision of her life. Not even her new relationship with Reeve, or the knowledge that her parents truly love her, help her.

Caroline Cooney masterfully portrays teenagers going about their normal lives, while skillfully building the suspense to the shocking surprise ending. THE FACE ON THE MILK CARTON is so emotionally riveting that you'll have a hard time putting the book down. I had to finish it in one reading, so I could get to the next one in the series, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JANIE?

   --- Reviewed by Audrey Marie Danielson

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