The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney shared by goana

The Face on the Milk Carton is about Janie, a teenage girl who finds out she was kidnapped when she was only 3 years old. It starts out with Janie talking with her friends during lunch on a normal school day. Until her friend pulls out a milk carton, advertising a child who went missing 12 years earlier, who Janie recognizes is herself. It says that a young girl named Jennie Spring was taken from a shopping center in New Jersey. Janie begins to lose her grip on reality, but when she gets home and sees her normal house, she dismisses the milk carton. Then she starts remembering things like brothers and sisters she doesn't have now, and walking off with a lady who bought her ice cream. She begins to find things that don't add up, like how there are no pictures of Janie from before she was 4 and how her mom refuses to give Janie her birth certificate. She decided to explore the attic, thinking she might find something there. She found a black case marked "H" filled with school work of someone named Hannah. Under that, she found the dress she was wearing in the picture on the milk carton. The next day Janie finally works up enough courage to question her parents about everything, and finds out that they are really her grandparents. Their real daughter, Hannah, had joined a cult. One day she showed up with a little girl, and Janie's parents decided to keep her. Janie feels relieved that that was all it was, until she realizes there's more. Her neighbor Reeze takes her to New Jersey, and Janie finds the address of the only person in New Jersey with the last name Springs. She goes there, and sees children enter the address who look just like her. She tells Reeze to take her home. Over the next few weeks, Janie is an emotional mess. She loves her parents and doesn't want them getting arrested for kidnapping. She becomes alienated from her friends, her family, and even Reeze. She starts writing in a notebook about all her theories on the kidnapping. She writes a letter and addresses it to the Springs, but it falls out of her binder before she can send it. Reeze contacts his sister Lizzie, a lawyer, and she helps come up with the theory that Hannah kidnapped Janie for company, then left her with Janie's parents. Lizzie fills in Janie's parents, and they all decide it would be best to let Janie's New Jersey parents know that Janie is safe. The book ends with Janie calling her New Jersey parents.

The Face on the Milk Carton was a really good book! It was very suspenseful, and kept me wanting to read more. Although, the ending wasn't satisfying enough for me, and left me with a lot of questions. Hopefully they'll be answered in the sequel! I loved figuring out Janie's past along with her, and can't wait to read the next installment!