So every once in a while I like to take a trip back in time and read something that I've read before. Sometimes its something that I read in High School and hated (mostly because I was an angsty kid and hated everything the teachers told me I had to read), but sometimes I go back and read something that I loved as a kid.
This results in a few realizations: The first is that I didn't have great taste as a tween. The second though, is that through the simple storytelling, the middle school feelings, and the #deep lessons of the story, they aren't really all that bad.
It's fun to look at them through the lens of an adult.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The premise of the story is that while she is drinking milk during lunch, Janie comes to the realization that it is her face that is on the milk carton. That she was in fact, kidnapped.
I can tell why I wanted to read this as a kid. This was probably the gateway drug into my true crime obsession, even though its fiction.
Anyway, so once she recognizes herself on the carton, she confides in "the boy next door" Reeve, and together they do some research and some digging and take an adventure to New Jersey to try to locate her "real family". She pulls up to the house and sees a couple of kids playing in the yard that she assumes are her siblings, but doesn't get the courage to say hi or anything.
She confronts her "parents" who admit that they are really her grandparents, and her real mom Hannah, is part of a cult and left Janie with them. But of course that doesn't explain why she was on a milk carton. After some more digging, they find out that Hannah actually kidnapped her and convinced her parents that she had a kid.
I know, it sounds like a soap opera. And it kind of is. But that is the appeal for a middle school girl. But it is very problematic as an adult.
The middle parts of this book were BORING. How did it keep my interest as a tween? We spend the bulk of the book lost in Janie's head and her inner turmoil about being kidnapped. Also, Reeve? He's a creep. Sure, they have a first kiss that is kind of romantic in a pile of leaves, but after that Reeve spends the rest of the book trying to get Janie to FORGET THAT SHE SAW HER FACE ON A MILK CARTON and have sex with him.
What?
He literally takes her to a motel at one point in the book.
Not romantic.
The book ends with Janie calling her real parents. And that's it. Cliffhanger.
Now, there are other books in the series, I never read them, and I don't plan to, but how did I forget that this book ended in a cliffhanger? I feel like that would have pissed me off as a kid for sure.
Oh well. It was still a fun blast from the past. And as soap opera-ish as it is, I have to commend books that are written for children that touch on some tough subjects: kidnapping, cults, budding romance, sexual feelings. These things are light and I appreciate authors who realize that kids can handle those kinds of things.
I think I ultimately gave this book 3 stars, and I admit that nostalgia played a big part in that.
And if you want to hear some other opinions about this book, the podcast Teen Creeps just recently did an episode about this book too, and those ladies are hilarious.
Okay. My brain is tired. I finished MY FIRST GRANT today, but now I am sleepy, and I have a class visit at my little library tomorrow. So, gonna try to get in a quick workout at the gym and go. to. bed.
Goodnight all!
Until next time,
Memento Mori
&;
This results in a few realizations: The first is that I didn't have great taste as a tween. The second though, is that through the simple storytelling, the middle school feelings, and the #deep lessons of the story, they aren't really all that bad.
It's fun to look at them through the lens of an adult.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The premise of the story is that while she is drinking milk during lunch, Janie comes to the realization that it is her face that is on the milk carton. That she was in fact, kidnapped.
I can tell why I wanted to read this as a kid. This was probably the gateway drug into my true crime obsession, even though its fiction.
Anyway, so once she recognizes herself on the carton, she confides in "the boy next door" Reeve, and together they do some research and some digging and take an adventure to New Jersey to try to locate her "real family". She pulls up to the house and sees a couple of kids playing in the yard that she assumes are her siblings, but doesn't get the courage to say hi or anything.
She confronts her "parents" who admit that they are really her grandparents, and her real mom Hannah, is part of a cult and left Janie with them. But of course that doesn't explain why she was on a milk carton. After some more digging, they find out that Hannah actually kidnapped her and convinced her parents that she had a kid.
I know, it sounds like a soap opera. And it kind of is. But that is the appeal for a middle school girl. But it is very problematic as an adult.
The middle parts of this book were BORING. How did it keep my interest as a tween? We spend the bulk of the book lost in Janie's head and her inner turmoil about being kidnapped. Also, Reeve? He's a creep. Sure, they have a first kiss that is kind of romantic in a pile of leaves, but after that Reeve spends the rest of the book trying to get Janie to FORGET THAT SHE SAW HER FACE ON A MILK CARTON and have sex with him.
What?
He literally takes her to a motel at one point in the book.
Not romantic.
The book ends with Janie calling her real parents. And that's it. Cliffhanger.
Now, there are other books in the series, I never read them, and I don't plan to, but how did I forget that this book ended in a cliffhanger? I feel like that would have pissed me off as a kid for sure.
Oh well. It was still a fun blast from the past. And as soap opera-ish as it is, I have to commend books that are written for children that touch on some tough subjects: kidnapping, cults, budding romance, sexual feelings. These things are light and I appreciate authors who realize that kids can handle those kinds of things.
I think I ultimately gave this book 3 stars, and I admit that nostalgia played a big part in that.
And if you want to hear some other opinions about this book, the podcast Teen Creeps just recently did an episode about this book too, and those ladies are hilarious.
Okay. My brain is tired. I finished MY FIRST GRANT today, but now I am sleepy, and I have a class visit at my little library tomorrow. So, gonna try to get in a quick workout at the gym and go. to. bed.
Goodnight all!
Until next time,
Memento Mori
&;
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