Perhaps the most interesting character in the whole story was really Hannah, the kidnapper. Although, I think the intention was for us to see how some of these characters are growing up, some of the characters like Jodie and Stephen did little to redeem themselves. The constant jumping from person to person could be jolting sometimes, especially if you went from a sympathetic character (Sarah-Charlotte, Reeve) to the more douchebag (Stephen, Jodie) ones. Come to think of it, the only viewpoint we didn't get was Frank, her adoptive father who had a stroke.

Janie, her brothers, her sister, mother, father, Miranda, Hannah. Throughout the story we get the viewpoints of almost every single character in the story. The book is also told through multiple viewpoints. Now, Janie has a cell phone, computer, and Skype. Instead of making her book dated and setting it in 1995, Cooney chooses to ignore when the first book was written and pretend that the first story took place in 2008. The first being simply that the first book was written 23 years ago, however in the story only five years have passed. It begins a little slow, but is soon running along at a good speed.Īlthough I absolutely love having this final chapter in Janie's life, there were some problems. For all the female fans, this is a book chock full of romance and weddings and forgiveness and everything girly. Janie? Jane? Jennie? And what about that kidnapper, Hannah, what has she been up to all these years?Ĭaroline Cooney, despite not intending for this to ever be a series has finally finished the story of Janie Johnson. A true-crime writer has been tracking down her family members and Janie isn't sure who she is anymore. Now, in the fifth and final book, Janie Johnson is 20 years old. The series continued on for three more books, detailing Janie's struggles to be a part of both the Spring's and Johnson's lives and finding enough love to go around. After reuniting with her biological family, Janie really struggles with this idea of who she is and who she can love.

Her parents, Hannah's parents, thought Janie was their granddaughter and raised her as their own.

She is really Jennie Spring, kidnapped from a mall when she was three by a woman named Hannah Javenson. Originally published in 1990, The Face On the Milk Carton was a thriller that asked, what would you do if you saw your face on a missing persons poster? What if your parents were kidnappers? At 15, Janie Johnson sees her face on a milk carton during lunch and from then on her life is thrown upside down.

Janie face on the milk carton