The Face on the Milk Carton

The Face on the Milk Carton is a young adult novel by American author Caroline B. Cooney and first published in 1990.

Plot summary

Janie Johnson is a fifteen year-old girl who has a regular life, attends high school, and wants her driver's license. While at lunch one day, she grabs a friend's milk carton which changes her life. She recognizes the "missing person" photo on the back of the milk carton; it happens to be herself when she was very young, dressed in a white polka dotted dress. The milk carton says that Jennie Spring was kidnapped from a New Jersey mall when she was three years old. Janie believes the carton must be some type of joke because her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, are very loving parents. Janie tries to put it out of her mind, but she begins having flashbacks, or what she calls daymares, of events and people that don't fit in with her current life. She "remembers" other children and a woman who is not Mrs. Johnson.

Janie goes to the attic, and rummages through the boxes, and in it she finds school papers by the name Hannah, and also the polka dotted white dress she saw on the milk carton. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson explain that Hannah is their daughter, and Janie is Hannah's daughter, their granddaughter. Hannah was a confused child and joined a cult at a young age. She was married to one of the men in her cult and one day showed up at the Johnsons' with Janie. Hannah returned to her cult, and the Johnsons ran with Janie fearing that the cult would try to get her back. The memories Janie had were probably of her life in the cult before coming to the Johnsons. Janie is relieved that the people she believed were her parents were not kidnappers.

However, Janie cannot get the picture on the milk carton or the memories of another family out of her mind. She researches the Spring kidnapping. She comes to the conclusion that her parents are probably insane and actually did kidnap her. But she still loves them and forgives them. Janie and her friend Reeve go to New Jersey to see the Spring family with their own eyes. The entire family has the same red hair that Janie has. It is proof that Janie can't ignore, but she tries to anyway. She writes the Spring family a letter, but she doesn't mail the letter because she is still unsure about what to do. While at school, Janie loses the letter she was writing to the Springs and the decision of whether to tell or not is taken out of her hands. She and Reeve go to her parents and tell them everything they've learned. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are shocked. They figure that Hannah was probably the one who kidnapped Janie; they also decide that the Springs must be called. Janie tries to keep them from telling anyone because she loves them very much and doesn't want to hurt them. But Janie's mother is adamant, the Springs have been without their daughter for too long. At the end of the book Janie is talking to her birth mother for the first time since the kidnapping. This book is the first in the series (total of 4 books] Read WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JANIE? to find out what happens to Janie next.the third book, THE VOICE ON THE RADIO. and the last book WHAT JANIE FOUND (2000)