Teen Reviewer: Janie Johnson Books 1, 2, 3, and 4

The Face on the Milk Carton (Janie Johnson #1)
Whatever Happened to Janie (Janie Johnson #2)
The Voice on the Radio (Janie Johnson #3)
What Janie Found (Janie Johnson #4)
By: Caroline B. Cooney
Reviewer: Emily Marie Reeves


The Face on the Milk Carton Description from Goodreads:

No one ever really paid close attention to the faces of the missing children on the milk cartons. But as Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl with her hair in tight pigtails, wearing a dress with a narrow white collar--a three-year-old who had been kidnapped twelve years before from a shopping mall in New Jersey--she felt overcome with shock. She recognized that little girl--it was she. How could it possibly be true?

Janie can't believe that her loving parents kidnapped her, but as she begins to piece things together, nothing makes sense. Something is terribly wrong. Are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson really Janie's parents? And if not, who is Janie Johnson, and what really happened?


Emily's Review:

The Face on the Milk Carton is the first in a soon to be five book series, and has made me absolutely speechless. The book ends way too abruptly. This is one of the best books that I have ever read, I recommend it for everyone. I’m even trying to convince my dad to read it. Do you think that if you came across a picture of yourself at the age of three that you would recognize it? Yes. How about if you did not know that was you? Probably not, but Janie Johnson was able to tell that she was the missing child on the back of her friend’s lunch milk carton. She feels like a bad daughter to the parents she left behind for an ice cream sundae, but does not want to leave the parents she grew up with and loves. If none of this happened to the three year old, Jeanie would have never met her boyfriend.



Whatever Happened to Janie Description from Goodreads:

No one ever paid attention to the faces of missing children on milk cartons. But as Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the little girl who had been taken twelve years ago, she recognized that little girl--it was herself.

The mystery of the kidnapping is unraveled, but the nightmare is not over. The Spring family wants justice, but who is to blame? It's difficult to figure out what's best for everyone.

Janie Johnson or Janie Spring? There's enough love for everyone, but how can the two separate families live happily ever after?


Emily's Review:

In Whatever Happened to Janie, Janie, also refered to as Jennie, goes to stay with her birth family. She does not try as hard as everyone else has been to make this new situation work. Towards the end she decides to go and live with the parents that raised her. Janie Johnson realizes that she truly is Jennie Spring, but does not want to hurt the people she calls Mommy and Daddy anymore than their real daughter did. Janie’s brother and sister, Stephen and Jodie, went to New York to try and find Hannah and make her pay for what she has done to their family. Hannah is the one who took Janie from the mall in New Jersey twelve tears ago and left the little girl with her own parents while she returned to the cult that attracted her back when she was a teenager. My favorite part is when Reeve came to visit Janie and asked her biological father if he could take Janie to his senior prom. My least part of the book is when Janie asks her biological mother if she could go back to the parents that raised her. I totally recommend this book.



The Voice on the Radio Description from Goodreads:

Janie's life finally seems to be settling down. But she really misses Reeve Shields, her boyfriend who is away at college. Reeve is overwhelmed by his new college life, and when he is asked to host a late-night radio show, he cannot turn it down. But he is stressed, and he finds himself spilling Janie's secrets on the air, certain that Janie will never find out. But will Janie have to pay for Reeve's lapse in judgement?


Emily's Review:

In The Voice on the Radio, Reeve becomes the biggest jerk when he finally gets a good spot on his college radio station. The jerk part comes in because he tells Janie’s story without her permission and then does not tell her about it himself. She finds out when she goes to Boston with Jodie and Brian and hears him doing one of his janies, or stories about her. My favorite part of The Voice on the Radio is the when Janie is actually able to call her birth parents mom and dad. She realizes that she can love both sets of parents without hurting anyone. When Janie found out what Reeve was doing on the radio is definitely my least favorite part of the book. The book doesn’t really get exciting until the end, but is still a very good read. I recommend this book to anyone who thinks that it is easy to trust someone because The Voice on the Radio proves that someone you thought that you could trust can still turn on you very easily. Just wait until you find out about Hannah.



What Janie Found Description from Goodreads:

Janie’s two families appear to have made peace. Life seems almost normal. She’s even decided to speak to her former boyfriend, Reeve, again. But then Janie’s Connecticut father suffers a sudden stroke, and this tragedy leaves her mother reeling. Janie must step in to manage family finances and to support her mother emotionally.

While handling her father’s business matters, Janie discovers the one undeniable fact that could destroy both of her beloved families. And she alone must decide what to do.


Emily's Review (spoilers ahead):

What Janie found is the most exciting book in the series so far; there is also an e-book available and still one book to come in January 2013. If I were Janie I would hate my kidnap[per] father even if he was in a hospital bed and about to die. I am so happy that Reeve and Janie get back together. My favorite part of the book is, definitely, when Janie is thinking about what she wants to do to Reeve to let him know that she wants him back. The worst part of What Janie Found is that Janie’s kidnap[per] father is in the hospital, because she can’t ask him any of her questions, and that makes her want to find Hannah and ask her all of her own questions. I cannot believe what Janie’s father did for his own daughter, the kidnapper. I recommend this entire series to everyone and anyone.