the face on the milk carton by caroline b cooney

Janie had fabulous hair: a wild, chaotic mane of red curls glinting gold. I'm against all this growing up.' He wound some of Janie's hair around his wrist. 'I hate when that happens,' her father grumbled. 'She's old,' said Janie's mother lightly. 'She's just a baby,' said her father, in the infuriating, affectionate way of fathers. Until last night her mother had said Janie could begin driving while her father said she could not. Then they would come to terms, rushing to meet in the middle. Setting themselves up like a debate team, her mother and father would argue until some invisible marital timer rang. Her parents-as always-had taken opposite sides. She was having driving fantasies because of dinner last night. She felt like driving for hours taking any road at all just going.Īctually Janie was only fifteen and had barely started driving lessons. With every leaf wrenched off its twig and whirled by the wind, Janie felt a tug. She could feel the pulse of the deep-blue skies. Whenever she was serious, he had intended the essay to be lighthearted. Whenever she joked, he wanted the essay serious. It’s not at all satisfying to read.She never knew what grade she would get in Mr.

It’s a cliffhanger (except the cliff is three feet up) that’s so dull it feels like the author just ran out of paper.ĭon’t be fooled by the fascinating premise. Just concerned about college and high school, but not much beyond that. Besides the fact that the main character does as much pining for who’s-his-face as detective work, she seems barely motivated to do anything. So jarring, you could literally mark where one story changes to the other.īesides the disconnected theming, the characters just aren’t likable. Plus it’s shoehorned in–these are two themes that don’t go together.

That’d be all I could think about - no time for boys or anything else. You can bet that if I saw my face on a milk carton, I’d be dedicating 100% of my time to figuring it out. And it comprises so much of the book too. But it’s only about 45% mystery and the other part is romance teen-dating, dealing with friends and crushes and other high school drama. Had a great premise–what if you saw that the missing person was you. I was really looking forward to this book.

The face on the milk carton by caroline b cooney