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.