The Face on the Milk Carton
by Caroline B. Cooney
★ Top 25 book of 1990 · #14 on Best Books of 1990
Fifteen-year-old Janie Johnson spots a missing child's photo on a milk carton and recognizes the little girl. Her life changes for good as she tries to weigh loyalty against doing the right thing.
Best for: Readers who like stories about a teen facing a hard moral choice.
The Face on the Milk Carton is #14 on BookWard's Best Books of 1990, out of 39 1990 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Face on the Milk Carton is about
Fifteen-year-old Janie Johnson is eating lunch at school when she sees a face on a milk carton and realizes it is hers. The missing girl, listed as Jennie Spring, was taken from a New Jersey shopping mall at age three. Janie starts having flashbacks that do not match the life she knows, and her parents offer an explanation involving their daughter Hannah and a cult. Small gaps in the story keep bothering her, so she and her boyfriend Reeve head to New Jersey to find the Spring family.
Caroline B. Cooney's 1990 novel, the first of five Janie Johnson books, grew out of the real practice of printing missing children's photos on milk cartons. It looks at identity, trust, and the pull between loyalty and doing what is right. It was also among the most frequently challenged books in the US in the 1990s and 2000s. Teen readers who like tense, emotional mysteries about family secrets will find it a good fit.
The Face on the Milk Carton on the Best Books of 1990
The Face on the Milk Carton came out in 1990. Of the 39 books first published in 1990 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #14 on our Best Books of 1990 list.
Why it made the list: 267 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (16 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1990 list
- Oh, the Places You'll Go! Dr. Seuss, #12
- The Stepsister Robert Lawrence Stine, #13
- The Beauty Myth : How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women Naomi Wolf, #15
- The Sleepwalker Robert Lawrence Stine, #16
See all Best Books of 1990 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1991.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 225 want to read it, 9 are reading it now and 33 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.3 out of 5 from 16 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 59 | 55% |
| Reader love | 74 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 33 | 20% |
Questions about The Face on the Milk Carton
When was The Face on the Milk Carton published?
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney was first published in 1990.
Was The Face on the Milk Carton one of the best books of 1990?
The Face on the Milk Carton is #14 on BookWard's Best Books of 1990, out of 39 1990 books that cleared our data bar. 267 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (16 ratings).
Why is The Face on the Milk Carton on the Best Books of 1990 list?
267 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (16 ratings).
More of the best books of 1990
- Good Omens Terry Pratchett, #1
- Jurassic Park Michael Crichton, #2
- The Eye of the World Robert Jordan, #3
- The Witching Hour Anne Rice, #4
- Flow Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, #5
- The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien, #6
See the full Best Books of 1990, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
Find your own best books
Add what you have read, rate it, and BookWard will recommend what to read next.
Free while in beta. No credit card needed.