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Title: The Face on the Milk Carton
Author: Caroline B. Cooney
Publication Info: Delacorte Books for Young Readers April 13, 1996
ISBN: 038532328X
Genre: Top 100 Banned Books
Submitted by Jen C
I have loved this book for more than a decade, now, and I have never exactly been able to ascertain why this book gets banned. Reeve is constantly thinking about sex, though in that middle-aged-woman-writing-this way- he wants to run his hands though Janie’s ‘serious’ red hair and put his body next to hers, rather than search for her real parents. There is some minor swearing. Plus, it reminds young people that joining a cult is awesome, because your parents totally won’t turn you in to the police.
Cooney’s books were the first step for me to reading romance novels. I grew up on her books- Camp Boy-Meets-Girl, Family Reunion, the Time series, Tune in Anytime, and The Girl Who Invented Romance. All the books feature dreamy, contemplative heroines caught in melodramatic situations. I based my life on these books, back in the day, living more of my preteen and teen years acting as a Cooney heroine would. This was not necessarily a successful endeavor, but I am still glad I got to spend my teen years with these books. Though I am now an adult, I still read and reread her books. None get to me quite like the Face on the Milk Carton. As Reeve would point out, you always remember your first… Caroline B Cooney novel.
*agrees totally*
the scene where Reeve (totally awesome name btw) pulls Janie down in a pile of leaves and kisses her? has stuck with me for like 10 years.
*LOVE*
Yeah, that last one in the series was kind of a stinker. But the first one is great!
Thankfully, I never read the last one, but oh man did this book affect my teenage years. God, Reeve was so hot.
I’m guessing that parents don’t like this book because a) teenagers think about sex, and b) they don’t want to promote cults, or something.
This is still one of my favorite books to this day. The first and the second still stand out to me and like you, I totally tried to imagine myself as a Cooney heroine. It’s a book that’s stuck with me that’s for sure.
Mine Is Don’t Blame the Music…now that’s good Caroline B. Cooney!
Wow, this is on the banned book list?
I remember my mom forcing me to read this book (ended up liking it) because she was tired of me reading nothing but Babysitters Club (don’t judge me; I went through a phase).
This was turned into a Movie of the Week featuring Kellie Martin, whose hair (or wig) was such a fluorescently awful shade of fake red that I spent most of the movie watching it in a combination of awe and horror.
Actually, from what I remember the entire Spring family had bad fake red hair. Heaven forbid they hire redheaded actors.
I remember reading this, and the other two in the trilogy. I remember the red hair thing, the cult thing, the grandparent thing, the third book (The Voice on the Radio?) feeling out of synch with the others, but for the life of me, I canNOT remember Reeve! Pulling Janie down into a pile of leaves to kiss her? Totally the kind of thing that would have had my thirteen year old self sighing – so why don’t I remember him?! Various boys from YA books I read years before reading The Face on the Milk Carton have stuck with me, why not this one? *grumps* I’m going to have to go track this down and re-read.
Actually, from what I remember the entire Spring family had bad fake red hair. Heaven forbid they hire redheaded actors.
Actually, Charlene, while I have to agree that Kellie Martin’s wig was pretty awful, I’m pretty sure they *did* cast redheaded actors for the rest of the family: Early photos of Sharon Lawrence, who played the mother, show her as a redhead; Richard Masur, who played the dad and Kristoffer Ryan Winters, who played brother Stephen, are natural redheads; and I’m pretty sure that the freckled actress who played her sister was a natural redhead too.
I must admit that I’d never heard of this book until I saw the Hallmark TV movie of it so I remember the movie fairly well. I’m interested to hear that there are sequels to the book!
My first Caroline B. Cooney was Both Sides of Time and I still have very fond memories of it…I even read the sequels (the second one was reasonable, the third was alright since it focused on secondary characters, but the fourth was just WTF?).
I did read The Face on the Milk Carton but the only bit I remember is the scene with Reeve on the leaves. Guess that shows where my brain was…
My first was Flight 116 Is Down, or whatever the number was . . . I liked Milk Carton better, but never read the sequels.
Helen, you’re not the only one. I remember the grandparent thing and the cult thing, and I don’t remember Reeve at all.
Shaina- I have endless amounts of love for this book, especially the teen romance parts. I never got pulled down into leaves, but I am waiting… it will happen.
Sarah- despite my best efforts with Google, I could never figure out why TFOTMC was banned. All I could find was other people asking why it had been banned, cause they had a report due in an hour and they couldn’t find any records of why the book had been banned. The world may never know.
Other Sarah (same Sarah?)- I know, Cooney heroines were awesome. I always get a little nervous before rereading a Cooney, for fear that the girls are all idiots, but so far, the books have mostly withstood the test of time.
Kerry- the one about the girl who stays home when all her classmates go to college? I also love that one.
Ishie- I am not even going to preend I didn’t read large amounts of BSC books. And that I didnt read an awfully lot of Sweet Valley books too.
Charlene- I loved the movie! Of course, I was ten when it came out. I am not sure it would stand up to anything at all, these days. But I still get a little happy when I see Kellie Martin doing anything.
Helen- there was another book following The Voice on the Radio, called What Janie Saw, and that is the one that made no sense whatsoever. But we got to see more of the moody oldest Spring child, so that was neat.
La Reine Noire- I hear you on the Time books. The last one, where they end up in Egypt was the strangest thing, and not nearly as romantic as the first two, what with all the swooning and the eating ice cream and the fiancee dying as she wasted away in a hospice. Good times.
Stephanie- I also remember Flight 116 Is Down. It was one of the first books I read that had normal people die in under non-extraordinary circumstances. And I remember the part where the girl has to cut down her rose bushes very well.
LOVE this book. The story petered out when Cooney wouldn’t let.it.die. But otherwise, it was so wonderful and emotional.
How and when the hell did this book get banned? It certainly wasn’t when I read it about ten years ago as a kid.
My little sister had a copy of this and so by necessity I had to pretend it was lame…but after a few years (seriously) I snuck it out of her room and read it. I think I was a little disappointed, but who wouldn’t be after all that build-up?