74 pages 2 hours read

Caroline B. Cooney

The Face on the Milk Carton

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1990

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Introduction

The Face on the Milk Carton

  • Genre: Fiction; young adult suspense/thriller
  • Originally Published: 1990
  • Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 660L; grades 7-9
  • Structure/Length: 18 chapters; approx. 164 pages; approx. 5 hours, 18 minutes on audio
  • Protagonist and Central Conflict: Fifteen-year-old Janie Johnson sees a photo of herself on a milk carton and sets out to discover if she was kidnapped as a young child.
  • Potential Sensitivity Issues: References to cults; sexual content; kidnapping

Caroline B. Cooney, Author

  • Bio: Born in 1947 in Geneva, New York; raised in Old Greenwich, Connecticut; currently lives in South Carolina; loved reading and studying music and Latin as a child; mother and grandmother; writer of fiction for adults, young adults, and children; has written more than 90 young adult titles
  • Other Works: Among Friends (1987); Whatever Happened to Janie (1993; the second in the Janie series of 5 titles); Both Sides of Time (1995; first in The Time Travel Quartet); No Such Person (2015)
  • Awards: Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Readers Choice Award (1993)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

  • The Development of Identity
  • What Constitutes a Family
  • Guilt and Responsibility

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

  • Develop an understanding of the social and historical contexts of kidnappings like Janie’s by researching how federal and local governments respond to them.