When I think back to middle school and high school, I remember reading a lot, much as I do today. A great deal of the books that I’ve read have faded far back into the recesses of my memory so that I don’t recall ever reading them. But Caroline B. Cooney’s books are not among those. Most notably her series featuring Janie Johnson beginning with “The Face on the Milk Carton” is definitely not among those.


I remember it as being a mystery surrounding Janie, the girl who thought she lived a perfectly ordinary life and wished for something more exciting until the day she saw her own face staring back from a milk carton, listed Missing. When I learned that “The Face on the Milk Carton” was one of the most frequently challenged and banned books from 1990-2000, I thought I must have missed something. So I reread the book this month. And still, I seemed to be missing something.


So after some research, I learned that the main reason that this book gets challenged is the so-called “sexual content.” And I believe my exact words upon discovering this were: “Well, that’s annoying.”


Because here’s the thing: there isn’t really sexual content. What there is is the mention of sex. The idea of it. So it annoys me because newsflash: of course teenagers are going to think about sex! There are these things called hormones and they are just raging inside of these kids.


But the thing about this book is that I would think that it would be one that adults would want teens to read. Because teens know that sex is out there, they know that they didn't get here by immaculate conception. And, Janie, when she comes to a point where she could decide to lose her virginity, chooses to wait instead because she knows that she isn’t ready. Personally, I think that that’s a good message.


And not one that should be banned.