the face on the milk carton by caroline b cooney

Losing a child is every parent’s nightmare. For awhile, the convincing explanation provides relief, but the ghosts of another family, still waiting, resurface and Janie realizes she must confront her missing past … Hannah asked that her parents save Janie from the cult, then disappeared seemingly forever. Janie’s parents reveal a wrenching story of another daughter, Hannah, whom they lost to a cult, who reappeared one day with a little girl she claimed to be her own daughter. She finally confronts her parents about the lack of baby pictures, her missing birth certificate, and the mysterious trunk in the attic marked with a name that doesn’t belong to the family. Having seen herself as someone else, Janie’s daymares won’t stop as her 3-year-old’s memories build with relentless force. So what if her red hair doesn’t match her parents, she knows in her heart that the nurturing, caring Johnsons are her real mother and father … aren’t they? Could Janie actually be this Jennie Spring, kidnapped 12 years ago from a New Jersey mall?īut Janie is a happy Connecticut teenager, who loves her adoring parents, has wonderful friends, and is falling in love for the first time with her next-door neighbor Reeve. or does it? Janie recognizes the dress in the picture, can actually feel the itchy collar suddenly against her neck. Staring back at her is the picture of her 3-year-old self, but the milk carton clearly has someone else’s name, some other child’s birthdate, someone else’s history.

Sitting at lunch as usual with her friends, Janie Johnson who, at 15, is already playing with her identity by adding and changing letters to her plain name, sneaks a swig from a friend’s milk carton, even though she knows the milk will make her sick (she’s allergic).

As today is Halloween, here’s a story that promises to scare, chill, and thrill you …

The face on the milk carton by caroline b cooney