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74 pages 2 hours read

Caroline B. Cooney

The Face on the Milk Carton

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1990

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Chapters 10-12

Chapter 10 Summary

Janie awakens in the night from an upsetting dream. She doubts her parents’ story about her origins, recognizing that their story does not explain the milk carton. She tries to separate her true memories from her theories and fears. Janie worries that Frank and Miranda could have kidnapped her from New Jersey to replace Hannah. Janie cannot go back to sleep.

Janie eats an uncomfortable breakfast with both of her parents. Miranda offers to spend the day with Janie, but Janie decides to go to school. Frank appears nervous. Janie wishes that she could reassure him but finds it difficult to behave normally. She sees Reeve leaving for school and climbs into his Jeep. Janie and Reeve decide to skip school. She tells him to drive toward New Jersey.

Chapter 11 Summary

Janie and Reeve leave Connecticut, passing through heavy traffic in New York. As they drive by waterfront homes, Janie imagines where “Jayyne Jonstone,” her invented identity, would live. She continues to think that her parents may have kidnapped her. Janie tells Reeve about the milk carton and her suspicions. Reeve questions Janie’s memory and says that Miranda and Frank could go to prison if they did kidnap Janie. He worries that his and Janie’s parents will think they had sex because they have skipped school together.

Janie grows silent as she and Reeve drive along the Jersey Turnpike in the rain. Reeve talks about his childhood with high-achieving siblings. He turns the radio up, annoyed that Janie does not respond to his stories. Janie thinks that she is a bad person for ignoring Reeve and possibly going along with her kidnapping. Reeve exits the turnpike and asks Janie what to do if they find the Spring family in New Jersey. She does not answer. Reeve stops at an International House of Pancakes. He suggests they eat and plan their next moves.

When Janie imagines meeting the Springs, she becomes emotional. Reeve hugs Janie. He continues to caution her about acting out on her suspicions, advising Janie that she could ruin Frank and Miranda’s lives. Janie believes that Reeve loves her but is not sure “what kind of love” he feels (107). Instead of going into the restaurant, Reeve and Janie drive to a phone booth to look for the Springs’ address in a phone book. They find the address and ask a clerk for directions to the home. Despite Reeve’s misgivings and Janie’s headache, they drive to the Springs’ street. Reeve tries to talk to Janie about their kiss in the leaves, but she focuses on their drive.

Janie sees two boys with red hair leave a school bus and walk to the Springs’ address. She remembers having a dog named Honey. When woman opens the door of the Springs’ home, Janie begs Reeve to drive away. She panics and says that the Springs cannot be her family. Janie sees another, older, boy leave the high school bus and believes he is her brother.

On their way home, Janie and Reeve sit in heavy traffic. They debate calling their parents to inform them of their whereabouts. Reeve again says that his parents will suspect him and Janie of having sex. Janie imagines being intimate with Reeve. They consider driving to a motel.

Chapter 12 Summary

Reeve pulls into the parking lot of a cheap motel. He and Janie register by signing their names in the motel’s office. After Reeve gets a room key, Janie tells him that she cannot go into the room with him. He returns the key, and they return to Reeve’s Jeep. Janie reassures Reeve that she will be with him one day. He happily kisses her. They notice that it is late and wonder if their parents will call the police. Janie realizes that since Reeve paid for the room with his father’s credit card and, his parents will believe they stayed in a motel together.

Reeve tells Janie that he cares about her parents and urges her to avoid rushing to conclusions about the Spring family. Janie thinks about how her entire life will be shaped by her kidnapping. Reeve and Janie return home and their angry parents meet them outside.

Chapters 10-12 Analysis

Janie’s relationship with Reeve takes center stage in these chapters. Instead of pursuing information about her kidnapping on her own, as in earlier chapters, Janie confides in Reeve and gains a partner. Seeking answers alongside Reeve makes Janie bolder. Reeve holds her accountable, pushing her to follow through on their drive to New Jersey when Janie would rather give up and return to Connecticut without finding the Springs’ home. But Reeve cannot save Janie from her intensifying feelings of guilt. That guilt builds in the background of these chapters before spilling over into the narrative foreground later in the novel.

These chapters also include details that help clarify the novel’s setting. For the first time in the novel, Janie ventures outside of Connecticut. Visiting New Jersey allows her to compare the Springs’ modest home with the Johnsons’ upscale residence. The narrator’s references to payphones, phonebooks, and hotel check-in processes imply that the novel’s setting predates the 21st century. These period details may prompt readers to consider how technology, such as smartphones and the internet, would change a story like Janie’s.

In some ways, The Face on the Milk Carton is a traditional coming-of-age story in which the protagonist seeks out her identity in her changing, newly adult body. This archetype often involves a sexual awakening, and though Janie’s identity crisis is a bit more complicated than most, her interactions with Reeve, and their physical interest in one another, plays on common coming-of-age themes. Janie and Reeve are both fairly mature about sex; Janie decides she’s not ready, and Reeve happily accepts that she will be someday. This contrasts with their parents’ presumption that the pair is being reckless with their physicality. 

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