This young adult confection is pure fun. Seventeen year old Ginny has a collection of sealed envelopes from her aunt. She is to travel to Europe and then around Europe following the instructions in the letters, not opening a new letter until she has completed the task set forth for her in the prior letter. Ginny's beloved aunt had runaway from the settled predictability of her life in order to pursue her art several years before and she wanted Ginny to have a taste of the spontaneity and experience the joy of travel that she herself felt in her last years (she has recently died of a brain tumor). Making a huge leap of faith, Ginny does indeed buy a plane ticket and head off to Europe to fuflfill her aunt's hopes for her, meeting special people in her aunt's life and people who become special in her own. She opens her envelopes one at a time, sometimes understanding the reasons behind the instructions and other times being baffled but always trying to enter into the spirit of the adventure. She learns a lot about herself through her trip through Europe and perhaps learns even more about family, love, and belonging. This is written for high school aged readers but there's very little that might be inappropriate for younger advanced readers. It was a cute read and one that almost makes me wish I had done something so completely out of character like spinning off to Europe without set plans. The ending is a bit of a surprise and while I initially wanted more, upon reflection, I think it ended just as it had to end. A sweet book and one that I'll stick on a shelf for my daughter to discover sometime. ( )

Let me just start out by saying that I am a big fan of Maureen Johnson. Her sense of humor is what draws me into her books and leaves me wishing for more by the time I'm done. That said, 13 Little Blue Envelopes is her one book that got the most hype pre-Suite Scarlett so I am shocked at what a disappointment it was.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS.

Ms. Johnson normally has that pitch-perfect ability to make characters and situations come alive for me. I wasn't feeling it with this one. The premise is interesting enough: a deceased woman leads her niece through Europe via instructions written in thirteen little blue envelopes. However, Maureen Johnson wasn't able to give this particularly wacky situation a soul. It just starts off with Ginny explaining how the envelopes situation came about and a little background on her and her aunt. Then she's off to Europe. That's it, just like that. As if everyone is just able to swing off to an entirely different continent. It had previously mentioned that her mom was disapproving of her aunt and her antics so why was she met with no challenge on the exploration of Europe? I haven't seen anyone bring this up yet so maybe it's only me, but I don't think most parents would want their child gallavanting alone through unfamiliar countries. Even a brief mentioned of a conflict or some sort of parental reaction or even a "Ginny had run away to the airport and her parents currently had no idea where she was" would have brought the situation to life a little bit more. (I'm sorry. I'm nit-picky about these kinds of details. I know it's not a huge central problem but there it is.)

Great characterization is another thing that I look for in Maureen Johnson books. She's usually able to create believable characters with likes and dislikes and habits and passions and everything else that makes a person a person. Ginny was just bland. The story was more about Aunt Peg who was stuffed with believable-Maureen-Johnson-personality. Ginny was just an empty vessel meant to uncover the truth about her aunt. She was given a love interest who was half-way believable and that's about all there is to say about Ginny.

I was excited to read a book that was not only set in Europe but set ALL OVER Europe. But I never really got the impression that Ginny was seeing these new and exciting places. She just skipped around through them, not really making them memorable or even fun. She may as well have been trekking through the backalleys of any suburban neighborhood. Each glance of a new country was fleeting and came with a new character/situation/piece of knowledge that was also fleeting. All in all, Europe seemed just as lifeless as Ginny did.

I gave the book three stars because despite my complaints with it there were a few redeeming factors. The scene in which Ginny and few others sing along to ABBA songs in Denmark was definitely a mark of the wonderful Maureen Johnson. The Starbucks Musical was a hilarious idea and something that I would pay money to see--this was the one part of the book that Ginny actually evoked a reaction from me. I could feel her anxiety when she realized the mistake she had made by buying out all the tickets. There were a few minor characters I wouldn't mind reading about had Ms. Johnson made one of them the protagonist: the first was Mari Adams, the eccentric artist that Ginny meets. The other was Olivia, the secret lesbian living with a pair of rather deranged parents.

All in all, I would recommend Johnson's other works before this though if you are a Maureen Johnson fan, a bit of her spark does shine through making it worth the read. ( )

After the early death of her adventurous (and eccentric) Aunt Peg, Ginny embarks on a trans-Atlantic romp that brings her from London to Greece, Rome, Copenhagen (and back again) by way of instructions in thirteen envelopes written by Peg to recreate her own travels through Europe. Worried that her beloved niece has been too quiet and shy for too long, Peg develops the envelope adventure as a way to bring Ginny to a totally new place -- and give her the ride of her life -- after she is no longer there to guide her into adulthood.

I really enjoyed this book, though I felt as though there was a disconnect between Ginny and everyone around her. Because the book was told in third person and we weren't privy to Ginny's private thoughts, the book seemed to amble along and keep us totally separate from our main character. She seemed numb -- someone totally emotionally stunted. After she meets boisterous and talented actor Keith in London, we only find out she's somehow interested in him through a letter she writes to her best friend. It was just a whole lot of telling and not enough showing for my tastes. At the end of the novel, I still felt like I didn't really know her at all.

But that being said, I can't say I didn't like this book . . . I really did. I loved the glimpses of European cities, especially the ones I've visited -- the novel reminded me so much of my visits in London, my heart actually hurt a little bit at the memories! I really liked reading Aunt Peg's letters and wondering where the envelopes would guide her next. The characters she met along the way were fun.

This was definitely an easy read -- I finished it fast. Perfect for a car or plane ride. I would have liked a little more resolution at the end of the novel -- what happened with the love interest? that was just it? -- but my fun reading about the international locations saved it for me. ( )

Ginny receives a message from her eccentric aunt, six months after she died. The message gives her thirteen little blue envelopes and instructs her to travel to Europe and perform a certain task; when she has completed that task, she can open the next envelope. Ginny ventures out into the world and for the first time breaks out of her shell, finds love, and learns all sorts of things she never knew about her aunt's life.

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes was sweet and fun. It was an adventure, but not overly dramatic at all. The tone was perfect: light and funny. I love Ginny's character - she has many qualities of a normal teenager, but she's independent, self-reliant, and she doesn't always go with the flow. She's her own person, and she's exactly who she wants to be. I highly recommend this book. It was a pleasure to read. ( )

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, oddly enough. it was a travelogue, but I found it feeding to too many Dumb American travel cliches to be truly gripping. The story premise was cute and original, but not enough to sustain me gladly. ( )