Author: Caroline B. Cooney
ISBN: 0440220653
Publisher: Laurel Leaf, 1991
Age: 9-14
Genre: Realistic fiction
Summary: Fifteen year old Janie Johnson is pretty much bored with her life. She has a boring name, boring parents, and her friends aren’t even that interesting anymore. Then one day, while eating lunch at school, she sees the “Missing Child” advertisement on the back of her friend’s milk carton and is shocked to see a picture of herself looking back. What should she do? Are her parents really kidnappers? Is she Jennie Spring or Janie Johnson? As she’s struggling to answer all of these questions her best friend, and neighbor, Reeve wants to be more than friends. Since he’s the only one who knows about the dilemma she’s dealing with she doesn’t want to push him away, but she’s not ready…what should she do? Should she call the number on the milk carton?
Read A-likes: Whatever Happened to Janie?; The Voice on the Radio; and What Janie Found.
Personal Thoughts: This book was a favorite of mine when I was a kid, so I was eager to revisit it and enjoy it once again, but was surprised to find so much more than I remember. The very real age specific issues used in this book was surprising, since I didn’t remember most of them from before. It was really interesting to read this book through the lens of adulthood and see how it would be useful and interesting to tweens and teens. A lot of the emotional issues addressed are common to numerous teens (friendship, opposite sex, school, etc) and could be useful in illustrating to tweens and teens how other’s have dealt with their issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment