Fifteen-year-old Janie Johnson is the protagonist of Caroline B. Cooney's The Face on the Milk Carton. She lives in a quiet town in Connecticut. There are many things that Janie likes about her life. For instance, she has loving parents who dote on her. Janie's parents also spend much of their time giving back to the community, and Janie loves going to see the local soccer games that her father coaches or accompanying her mother on mother-daughter outings.

Janie also has a close-knit group of friends, including her best friend, Sarah-Charlotte Sherwood. She enjoys being with them. She eats lunch with the group almost every day, and they share food as well as stories about themselves. While the group generally acts as a strong support network for one another, Janie cannot bring herself to confide in them about the problems that confront her once she sees a photo of three-year-old Jennie Spring on a milk carton and notices a similarity between the child and herself. The caption under Jennie's picture indicates that she was kidnapped over a decade earlier. Janie eventually concludes that she is Jennie Spring, who was stolen her from her biological family years before.

This causes Janie to question everything about her life and her parents. Even so, in some ways this crisis is also a catalyst for her relationship with the boy next door, Reeve Shields, to deepen.

As the book progresses, she opens up about her dilemma to Reeve. Being able to unburden herself to someone whom she trusts makes things a little easier for Janie to face. Reeve is able to help Janie understand the events that led to the kidnapping and how to navigate her complicated situation. In describing one encounter between the two, who are now becoming romantically involved with one another, the author writes,

Peace settled in on Janie. She felt heavier, as if her weight might press on Reeve until his ribs broke.

What did Janie like about her life in The Face on the Milk Carton?

There is a lot that fifteen-year-old Janie in The Face on the Milk Carton likes about herself and her life.

After a lot of experimentation with the spelling of her name, she likes the variation she settles on—Jayyne Jonstone—feeling “it looked like the name you would have if you designed sequined gowns for a living, or pointed to prizes on television quiz shows.” Names in particular mean a lot to Janie, as she loves the names of her friends and decides that when she grows up and marries (something she daydreams about frequently), she will name her own daughters Denim and Lace.

Among the other things Janie likes are peanut butter and anything that goes with peanut butter, including marshmallow fluff and bananas. She loves milk, but having recently been diagnosed as lactose intolerant, she can’t have any—and the desire for milk ignites the story’s central conflict when she discovers her picture on the back of a school cafeteria milk carton.

Janie loves her “perfectly normal” family, enjoying a warm and loving relationship with both her parents. Janie and her mother frequently participate in “An Activity to Share,” the latest being a cake-decorating class. Janie’s father is prone to scooping his wife and daughter into bear hugs when returning home at the end of the day, something Janie eagerly looks forward to.

She loves the power of driving and the freedom it gives her. She loves her neighbor, Reeve, and eventually, the two begin a romantic relationship.

Unlike her mother, who loves deep, rich colors, Janie loves pastels, decorating her bedroom in “Janie's colors: ivory, pale pale rose, and faded lavender.” Pajamas are something else she loves, everything from flannel to silk shorties, cotton and lace to “bridal-trousseau-type” nightgowns. Janie also “adored mischief, if she could watch, rather than participate. She was perfectly willing to cheer the boys on as long as she ran no risk of getting punished along with them.”