This is a really great book. The protagonist is really likable and identifiable and the events that take place are quite funny. This book makes you feel like you're traveling with her and, after you're done reading, will make you want to travel. ( )

Rated by Mariah (Class of 2010) ( )

I really liked it. It reminded me of the wonder and the danger of travel. I've also met some of these people in the small amount of traveling I've done. Also, apparently Maureen Johnson has known some of these people in her own life. The basis for Mari exists (wow) and Richard exists. This is definitely a book I might read again. ( )

Reviewed by Dena Landon for TeensReadToo.com

When Virginia Blackstone (Ginny) receives the first blue envelope from her Aunt Peg in the mail, it sends her on an exciting, funny, and sometimes poignant adventure that readers will be delighted to join. The envelope contains $1,000 in cash, and the instructions to pick up a package of envelopes that start Ginny on a trip around Europe, tracing the steps of her eccentric Aunt. The instructions are specific; no cell phones, no maps, and Ginny can only open one envelope at a time, after she's completed each task in the previous letter.

Through the letters, Ginny learns more about what drove her Aunt to flee to Europe in pursuit of her art, and about her Aunt's last year of life, since Aunt Peg has passed away from a brain tumor by the time the first envelope arrives--and Ginny never got to say good-bye. Through her adventures, Ginny learns a lot about herself. Her own strength and ingenuity, her ability to forgive, and that she, too, can be an interesting person.

Some of the tasks seem impossible; find the one café in all of Paris where her Aunt spent a month sleeping behind the bar and decorating the café to pay her rent. Others are easier, at least on the surface; find a starving artist and be his mysterious benefactor. Readers will both laugh at some of Ginny's mishaps and cringe at some of her mistakes as the envelopes lead her around Europe.

Peopled with a strong cast of supporting characters--the cute playwright she meets in London, the annoying family of Americans with a "schedule" in Amsterdam, the crazy artist friends of her Aunt--the novel unfolds at a fast pace, while never losing its poignancy as Ginny retraces the steps of the Aunt she loved. Ms. Johnson has written an excellent and entertaining novel that I highly recommend. ( )

Ginny Blackstone’s journey of geographical and self discoveries in this story is one that we all dream of. Who wouldn’t want to be sent on a backpacking trip across Europe and do things we’ve never thought we were capable of doing?

Ginny’s free-spirited artist aunt, Peg, died from a brain tumor. After Peg’s death, a package containing 13 sealed blue envelopes is delivered to Ginny. They send her on various missions across the seas in foreign lands. All of a sudden, Ginny finds herself lugging a heavy purple-and-green backpack onto a plane and into the London flat of a man named Richard.

Peg’s instructions in the envelopes further mess with Ginny’s once passive existence as they instruct her to, for example, find a struggling artist whose work she admires to give money to. Despite the crazy, un-Ginny-like adventures she’s having, Ginny still has doubts every once in a while of what the heck exactly is she doing in Europe. Will Ginny ever come to terms with the fact that she IS capable of everything her aunt had once done?

13 Little Blue Envelopes is more than a fun ride through several European countries. It’s a journey of self-discovery for Ginny, as a shy girl learns exactly what she is capable of. ( )