LAST POST

The last chapter talks about a totally open discussion with Janie, her parents, Reeve and his sister Lizzie. This was probably suppose to be the climax of the book, as her parents are heartbroken and emotionally "beat up". However, I found it unrealistic that the parents revealed how heartbroken and their despair in such a open way. Any parents wouldn't want their child to worry, and probably would try to hide it, or try to come up with a conclusion, however hurtful it is, as passive as possible. Continuing on, through brainstorming ideas, they finally concluded that Lizzie would first meet up with the Springs, just so the Johnsons( Janie's current family) wouldn't be "kidnapping" Janie. Her mother, understanding a hurt of a mother when a daughter is missing, gets up and dials New Jersey's number, and the story end with Janie introducing herself.
In the end of the book, there was a preview for the next book, and it lets us see how happy her real mother was, expecting Janie to come home. Also, it shows how broken and fustrated the Spring children were. They hated Janie, due to the pain she has caused upon their family, the constant over protectiveness they get, the worry she has cast upon her parents for years. The last book should be interesting...
In conclusion to this blog, the book is banned due to the following reasons:
1) the idea of being kidnapped promoted in a child's mind
2) the semi-sexual relationship Janie (at the age of 15) and Reeve has ( like preventing teenagers to read this would prevent them from such a thing)
3) it gives teenagers/children the feeling of being grown up, being able to drive and have relationships at a young age
Basically, this book promotes, or puts into light, exactly what parents don't want their children to be doing.

FACE ON THE MILK CARTON... IS FINISHED.

Chapter 17

As this book is drawing to an end, it doesn't feel like it plot-wise. It feels like the conflict has just reached it's climax, yet the pages between my fingers just get thinner and thinner. In here, Janie's problem about New Jersey has subordinated itself, and her breakup with Reeve had snapped the long stretched elastic band. Reeve was doing the typical guy thing, finding another girl, having fun. Sarah-Charlotte was happy to comfort Janie, mending the broken friendship they had. However, I think Sarah-Charlotte was just happy because now Janie is single. Yet Janie's eyes were still on Reeve, she didn't want Sarah-Charlotte's comfort, which was just making Reeve look bad. Anyway, away with this teenager romance, this chapter didn't talk a lot about Janie and her family in New Jersey. She wrote a letter, but misplaced it. In the end, out of fear that somebody would mail it for her, she asks Reeve for his lawyer sister phone number, hoping to reach her in time so that she could contact family and do something about it. ( not calling the police) Reeve wanted to makeup with Janie.
This chapter, was filled with Janie's broken heart issue. She was eating less and less, felt dizzy and couldn't even stand properly. This book is also banned because it promotes anorexia. It's telling girls it's okay to be in despair over a guy that wants to get sexual with you, yes go ahead please be anorexic and cry over him. Anyway, Janie's only source of love and support was Reeve, but now since she's lost him, she was left in despair. She was desperate to hide the New Jersey problem back into the attic, forgetting it, finally learning to appreciate the loving home she had with her parents. The letter, however, gets misplaced, which means chances are somebody is going to read it. Now Janie is really in dilemma, next chapter, which is the last shall tell us what Janie is going to do.
This chapter was probably the most intriguing out of all of them, due to the emotional things Janie has been going through. I don't think this is the reason for this book to be banned though, because realistically it happens to all " pre-teens". Banning this book isn't going to prevent anything.

Chapter 15/16

It's funny how in the first ten chapters, things barely happened, and everything just dragged on. Now in just two chapters, I could whip through it quickly and be somewhat indulged in what's happening.
In these two chapters, the following happened: Janie continues her fake attitude towards her parents, whom she love, but she is dying to sort things out in her head. Her mother had signed up for family counselling, which her father and her both strongly disagree in letting somebody else in their privacy. Reeve and Janie's relationship grows; they are now officially going out. However, Janie and her conflicts in New Jersey keeps on interrupting their relationship, and their focus constantly differ. Reeve, eyes on Janie is starting to grow tired, yet still tolerated Janie's focus and mind on New Jersey and the kidnapping issue. Reeve tells his lawyer sister Lizzie, who then hypothesizes that Hannah, was the one who kidnapped Janie, making Janie's parents story true, because they too were blinded from the truth. In the end, Janie's distraction of this issue brought her an argument with Reeve, friendship with Sarah-Charlotte, who I find quite inconsiderate, not only does she not notice her best friend's worried behavior( eating less, constantly zoning out), but blames her for not paying attention to her guy problems.
One thing I find quite dumb of Janie, is how she clipped the milk carton onto her notebook. She dropped her notebook, and when her mother saw the milk carton, she quickly put on a fake smile with a heart attack inside, grabbed the book, left it in her room and went out with Reeve. It would've been quite easy for her mother to go upstairs and just look at what she was hiding, fortunately her mother didn't notice Janie's baby picture on the milk carton.
As this book progresses, I see reasons for this being banned. The idea of the novel attracts young readers, as I would've found this interesting between grade five to eight, yet it also tags along sexual ideas that would easily influence teenagers at that age. For example, along with all the frustrations Janie has been having with this, she and Reeve continue to flirt, and have somewhat sexual behaviour as this book describes Janie's satisfaction and want towards Reeve. As well, I think the twisted cult and the mentally messed up Hannah would make a child think different, or get scared.

Chapter11/12/13/14

Picking up from where we left off, Reeve and Janie goes to a motel, but leaves without doing anything. Then they go home at night, which then their parents come out and start yelling at them. While Janie was enjoying the parental feeling she was getting from her "parents", I couldn't help but feel a really awkward moment between Reeve's parents and Janie's parents. Reeve's parents were saying how the cult and the "Hannah issue" was a really big shock to Janie, and how they didn't know about it. Seems like to me, that they were helping Janie's parents keep a secret, and it was just that Reeve and Janie were too distracted by the scolding, the sudden relief that they weren't in trouble, to notice. As well, as much as Janie tries to accept the identity she has now, and assuring her parents that she wouldn't be another Hannah, Janie can't help but having nightmares, and thoughts constantly swaying her from what she assured to her parents. At the end, Janie's mom was even too scared to let her go to school, wanting to take the day off. She was worried sick when Janie had forgotten to call her when she went to library after school.
When Janie's mother was so scared of loosing her, and their reactions to Janie's arrival that night with Reeve, they gave me a really creepy feeling. They don't seem affectionate anymore, but instead, they seem obsessive and desperate, which seems kind of freaky. Ever since Janie found out about Hannah, they've been extremely protective of where she is and what she is doing, always reminding Janie about her promise of not being another Hannah... In the end when Janie was about to go to school, seems like her mother wanted to keep Janie by her side, not letting her go... Also, it doesn't seem fair that her parents were desperately trying to get Janie to stay and believe them, love them the same and never abandon them, yet in their minds and mouths, they keep mentioning Hannah. Janie was a bit-too-obvious replacement for Hannah, which furthermore makes her parents seem creepily insane.

Chapter9/10

Truth was revealed, now it's getting blurred. Janie, due to overwhelming "truth" of Hannah and the cult, had forgotten about the milk carton, and the dress found in the attic that matched the little girl's. The next day, Janie and her parents felt awkward with each other, and couldn't interact affectionately again. Janie understood her parents were afraid to loose another daughter, but she couldn't keep herself from the other side of the truth; New Jersey. In these two chapters, Janie and Reeve skips school to go find where Janie really came from. They saw her family, finding where they live through phonebook, because the last name Spring was on the milk carton. Janie saw her brothers, born with the same distinguishable hair like Janie's. In the end, she gets too afraid and decides to go home with Reeve, whose got other ideas at a motel.
I found it interesting that it was always raining where Janie is currently living, and once she reached her hometown, the sun shone brightly. This was a bit of a cheesy way to show that she has reached the truth, and this where "the sky clears". This is getting a bit confusing, thought not entirely tiring, the emotional truth from her current parents didn't seem to match the evidence that Janie found. Everything about the twisted cult and their beloved Hannah, was not told without grief, tears and uneasiness. I was surprised though how Reeve could even bring up the subject of sex.." Yes I know you're having an identity crisis, you have no idea who you are and where you're from, but let's have sex." This was a bit out of the blue, I guess this was to contribute to Janie's complicated thoughts; make it seem like there was many things happening at once in Janie's head. From this, I would understand why some paranoid mom would want this book banned from her son/daughter; Janie at a age of fifteen, ended this chapter with an invitation from Reeve to the motel.

TRUTH REVEALED

To summarize what I read since last time, Janie's "parents" are really her grandparents. This was, as most as it could've been, a relief for Janie to hear, who always imagined her affectionate parents as criminals. I first thought that was nothing interesting, but the reason why her mother Hannah, had left Janie for her grandparents was thought-provoking and a bit twisted. Ever since Hannah was a child, she did not include herself in any appropriate activities of her peers. Instead, she focused on right and wrong, she felt undeserving of everything she had, and had made herself a very depressing person. She soon met a group called the cult, and that group was a weird twisted illegal organization that focuses on people like Hannah, they take her in and completely control her life. They wanted to change her name to "purify" her, and if she had joined that group, then she would no longer have to feel guilty, because they cut off all sorts of entertainment. They wore yellow robes, men with shaved heads, and even have their leaders mate the people there.
This was the most thought-provoking to me. I first wondered how the author had come up with this idea; it seemed like to me a twisted religion. Many religion talks about being "purified" of world guilt, for example monks seclude themselves of the world, hoping to find a greater meaning of life and cuts themselves off from eating meat, love between man and woman, and almost everything the world would think as "fun ". The cult creates a world, telling the people it's a perfect world, they would no longer need to suffer from the guilt of having a happy life, because they are going to take it from them. Well, in my opinion this is just ridiculous people wasting their time , for the time they commit in living with the cult, feeling bad, having no fun... why don't they put that time for a trip to Africa, or at least commit themselves to something that contributes to the very thing they feel bad about. Hannah tried to leave the cult, leaving no trace of where they've been, moving place to place, but ironically in the end, she wanted to go back; she was addicted to it. How can some place, creating a fake cold world of a twisted "utopia", possibly have a person addicted to it? Could it be that humans have that sense of good in them, and they try to find something to fill up that empty space inside of them? She knew how bad the cult was, but she insisted on going back, telling me one thing, she enjoys lying to herself. She really believes that makes the poor situation better, or if she doesn't, then she's just plain selfish, only going there to make herself feel better, not caring about the people that loves her, only telling herself that at least she's not as bad as those people who are enjoying and appreciating life.

Chapter6/7

So after five chapters of showing us what Janie's life is like, things are starting to get interesting. To summarize briefly, Janie had finally got her hands on the wheel, driving her family to the football game. As well, her relationship with Reeves pushes forward, tacitly... Now, what I would like to call the "real" beginning of this story, is when Janie rummages through her attic, where she has never been to before. She finds a box full of newspaper articles, homework assignments of a mysterious girl name Hannah. Then, the chapter ends with Janie finding the dress that she wore on the picture of the milk carton.
Today, I think I found out why the concept of driving and getting a license is used to contrast and compare the odd life of Janie's. When she first got her hands on the wheel, she loved the feeling of control. She had control of whether to turn left or right, to stop or to reverse, where as in her own life, she didn't have a clue on what's going on. Control and power, something Janie doesn't have, but is able to hold firmly in her hands while she is driving.
This book is predictable. The classic of finding secrets in the attic used in the book, is a favourite among authors in the past decade, this again dates this book back to around to nineties. I find no reason for this book to be banned at all, compared to what is written nowadays. Banned books are only to give a warning to parents who might actually care is it not?
Banned books, it means NOTHING. You find ninety percent of banned books in a normal library. What surprises me though, is why they don't ban MAGAZINES, no because magazine have money clipped inside of them. Books on the other hand, no major company backs it up, they only provide people imagination, reflect profound things on life and our society, and they are only a sign of intelligence. Skimpy ladies in magazines are much better for our future generation!

Anyway, I believe the truth about Janie will be "revealed" soon.

Chapter 4/5

Okay, I'm getting sick of trying to be organized; you can't think while being organized.
So this book is not really moving along, so it's hard to analyze. However I did have some questions while reading this book. Throughout these five chapters, the idea of getting a driver's licence constantly pops up; why? It could be because it requires identification, which Janie obviously has no clue about. So far, nothing interesting has happened in this story, Reeve kissed Janie, and Janie is going to a football game on the weekend with her family and friends. The book is going nowhere with Janie being kidnapped, except for the fact that her worry of being kidnapped, and her daydreams interrupt her daily thoughts and actions. Janie has taken one step towards this mystery, picking up the phone, and unsuccessfully tries to dial the number on the milk carton about the lost child, which oh so surprisingly happens to be her, which we've read for over four chapters. Janie's excuse for her confused thoughts goes more radical , like having a demon put ridiculous thoughts into her head, and more about going insane.
If I gave it some more thought, a random thought pops into my head. This book drop hints that date it between 1980's to 1990's. Nowadays, you don't see a fifteen year old going to test for their driver's licence, and we no longer rake leaves off our lawn, for we can just hire somebody to do it. As well, the possibility of seeing a missing child on a milk carton seems narrow... how many companies want to stick missing children pictures on their products, unless it's more or less government funded? The idea also dates back to around that time.
Last thing I'm going to rant on about, is probably more unrelated to this book, though inspired by it. Identity. Is identity really that important to a person? Janie could have just lived on with her more than happy life, yet she keeps messing it up with these thoughts and confusion about rather she's really Janie or Jennie. Why is identity so important to a person? Do you not live a same life? Just because you're not named what you had lived along most of your life, just because you might not be where you thought you were from... it doesn't change who you are inside. What about the life you may be living right now, one may ask. Well, it doesn't mean it's been all a lie and a time wasted, you've been living YOUR life, whether you're Janie or Jennie or Bob. Or maybe people just crave a sense of belonging and ownership, they like the idea of what they have now is rightfully theirs, and they enjoy the fact of belonging somewhere, knowing that's a certain place you know you'll be.

Chapter 3

Inside the Milk Carton:
In this chapter, we're starting to see a more obvious change in Janie's thoughts and actions. Before, in the previous chapter, I had found Janie more to be spinning around confused thoughts. However, starting from this chapter, she's beginning to see her own life in a new perspective, picking out things that seem to lead her toward being different from her parents. She did not return her parent's obvious affection for her, and even thought of thoughts that would probably leave her mother beyond broken hearted if she heard it in person. As soon as her mother walks into her house, she kisses Janie from her face to her neck, and gives her a hug. Janie, on the other hand, stands there in hesitation, taking that moment to compare herself with her mother, and to realize how different they really were. Her father comes in the house, energized from the soccer practice, comes in with the equal amount of affection as her mother. Janie is beginning to build an invisible wall between her parents and herself. It's ironic, because this is all going inside Janie's head. Without her cold thoughts, that stick out dryly in the midst of the happy family atmosphere portrayed in the book, we would see a perfect family. We also see how loved she is, with Janie telling us how her picture is on every wall in her house.
Later on in the story, Janie signs up a cake decorating class with her mother. Even as this chapter ends, Janie is still confused and almost lost in all the thoughts and questions about her identity. More irrelevant, we see how close Janie and Reeve's families are; Janie is able to walk in without knocking, and Reeve's mother would treat her as a close family member. I feel that the story is starting to push forward, beginning, to build upon the plot that has been hammered down in the first two chapters.
Why Banned?
The only reason why this book might be banned in this chapter, is the wall Jane built against her parents, but I find this common anyway among rebellious teenagers and their parents. Other than that, don't sign up for cake decorating class.

Chapter 2

Summary...
Janie is still in shock from her devastating picture on the milk carton of kidnapped children, her mind debates whether she was really kidnapped or not. However, the fact that Janie's picture was on the milk carton overpowers anything said. Reese brings her to eat ice-cream, despite the fact she was lactose intolerant, and she continues to daydream(or daymare as she called it), the image of her as a child, and with a unknown woman bringing her to eat ice-cream, caused Reese to think she was shaken because of allergic reaction. In the end, the chapter concludes with Janie ending with the thought of everything being messy, with the bottom on the top.

In the milk carton...
At first I found the book to be a bit dramatic, and as much as I could imagine Janie in her situation, I didn't find it realistic. Although this chapter didn't talk much about the plot, but more about Janie's reaction, made me imagine what my reaction would be if I found myself to be a missing child years ago, my reaction was somewhat similar to Janie's. I found it interesting that if Janie was really kidnapped, then she would be a year younger than everybody else. I don't find this chapter not intriguing, therefore I don't have much to say.

Why Banned?
I found one reason why this book might be banned, and it might be the crush that Janie has on Reese. Personally, I don't think it's uncommon for somebody like Janie to have a crush on somebody who is five years older. However, a super protective father/mother might say, " This book is telling my daughter to get in the car with a older boy! It's telling her that dumb seventeen/eighteen year-old teenage boys are attractive!"