13 Little Blue Envelopes

I loved Aunt Peg right from the first letter. Even though everything the reader knows about her is through the letters and the memories of those she knew, she still seemed like an amazing and quirky person to be around. Ironically, she seemed more "alive" than the the main character, Ginny. Ginny's shyness and withdrawn personality seemed to hinder a connection with the reader for a large portion of the book. The letters from her Aunt Peg seemed to draw her out of her shell as she forces herself to complete the strange and uncomfortable tasks listed in the letters.
Of course, what sane person wouldn't want to travel all over Europe for a month on some else's dime? Even though the tasks sometimes made no sense, and Ginny often had to miss show more out on the typical tourist destinations, the memories that she created and the life lessons that she gleaned from these abstract travels are invaluable. In addition, she gains a family member, a romantic relationship, and the freedom to go where she wants and be who she wants to be without feeling constrained by the life she had led previously to this adventure.
I was slightly disappointed with what happened towards the end, but the way that Ginny deals with it actually makes it better than it probably would have been otherwise. This ending also shows how well she truly knows her Aunt Peg, even after Peg's death. Her Aunt Peg was able to leave her with the roadmap to a lifetime of lessons and adventures, all stamped with Peg's unforgettable style. show less

Ginny is an average girl. Quiet, shy and as normal as you could be. So when she sets off to London under the direction of her recently deceased runaway aunt, it takes her by surprise. This is completely out of the ordinary, but then again it's right in line with what she should expect from Aunt Peg, who ran off to Europe years earlier. Following the directions of letters in blue envelopes that her aunt wrote before she died, Ginny goes on a tour that starts off in London and takes her across the continent. Along the way, she meets some old friends of her aunt's, some new friends of her own, and a fun and funny English guy, of course.

I loved reading about Ginny in all the different countries; in fact, I was swept away immediately when show more she first set foot in London. Having spent a semester there, I fondly remember many of the places and sites Ginny saw and visited. It's also great for people who haven't been to any of these places, since Johnson does such a great job at setting the scene. It's a European tour from your bedroom (or backyard, or wherever you're reading it).

Johnson has a very gentle tone to her storytelling, and it was a nice change. Most of the YA I've recently been reading has been, for lack of a better word, tense. But the third-person narration (also a nice change) was unhurried and relaxing. That's not to say nothing exciting happened; it was just written in such a way that lacked urgency, which I found to be a good thing.

All of the characters were great fun to read about, whether it is the mischievous Keith, the nutso artist Mari, or the houseboat-dwelling Knud. I found myself smiling a lot while reading about them all.

Throughout, there is also the sadness Ginny feels about her aunt, who disappeared without so much as a goodbye. Because she was absent so long, her death doesn't quite feel real to Ginny at first, and we see the progression of her grief as she travels around Europe.

I'm looking forward to the sequel, The Last Little Blue Envelope, which will be released on Tuesday. I'm eager to see what happens to Ginny in this last adventure her Aunt Peg will send her on.

Also, for a limited time, 13 Little Blue Envelopes is a free e-book for both Kindleand Nook. I'm guessing it's free for Sony too, but I'm not sure where to look for that link.

Disclosure: I got this e-book for free from bn.com. show less

I recently discovered I really enjoy fictional travel books, and non-fictional too. I discovered this after reading Eat, Pray, Love and then I moved on to some others. Well, I wanted to try out this one because someone told me it's like a YA travel book, I figured, I like YA, I like travel books. Sold.

To say I liked this book would be an understatement. I LOVED IT! I loved every second os Ginny's happiness, giddiness, embarrassment, joy, everything. I found myself wishing I was traveling with her, thinking to myself whether some of these places could be real or not. Planning my own 13 envelope traveling experience based on the book...and so on and so forth. To say the very least Maureen Johnson inspired me. She showed me a world show more outside the mad crush of the current craze of vampires, werewolves, and angels and showed me a normal world, with semi-normal people.

The characters in this book were perfect, I had no faults with any of them. I also think the plot moved at an excellent pace. I read this book straight through in a few hours when I went up to Seoul for the weekend. Reading this book also inspired me to want to get out and go see some things here in Korea, go check out some places I may never see again.

I adore this book, I adore Maureen Johnson, and I can't wait to read book two in this series, 'The Last Little Blue Envelope'. show less

Ginny's Aunt Peg was always an eccentric, wandering artist. Shortly after receiving notice that her aunt passed away from a brain tumour, Ginny gets a package containing thirteen blue envelopes filled with notes from her aunt, that instruct her to go from her home town of New York to London, where she begins her serendipitous journey through Europe encountering people and places she never would have thought of going on her own.

At it's heart, Johnson's novel is a love letter to European travel. Ginny's journey, guided entirely by her odd aunt's directives in each numbered envelope, leads her through a variety of cities in different countries in which she meets a strange assortment of individuals, my favourite being Keith, the young show more artist with his musical about Starbucks. The novel doesn't make the experience glossy and perfect, Ginny encounters scary hostels, the grunginess that comes from living out of the contents of her backpack, the thieves that prey on tourists, and the occasional moments where foreign travel is just underwhelming. But at the same time she really grows as an individual, going from the shy, awkward girl who avoids standing out to the shy, awkward girl capable of traveling around Europe on her own. A fun read that will have you itching to grab your passport and head off to the wonders of Europe in short order. show less

Ginny receives thirteen envelopes from her aunt that leads her on a wild goose chase around Europe. Along the way she meets a wide array of characters who influence her in some way.

As the story unfolds, we travel with Ginny from New York to London and then hop on trains, planes and various forms of transportation to other European cities. As Ginny's travels unfold we are given glimpses into the mind of the aunt who wrote her the 13 letters. We face the perils - and freedom - of traveling alone in foreign cities. We feel Ginny's despair when she needs to figure out what to do next, as well as her triumph when she's overcome an obstacle, or solved a riddle.

Maureen Johnson did a wonderful job in describing the essence of each location, show more making it feel as though I was traveling along the streets with Ginny. The story progresses quickly and while there were many funny bits, it was also a story of grieving and acceptance. I appreciated that the reason for envelopes were explained in the beginning of the novel, while still allowing for the mystery in their contents.

The one thing I did not completely understand was the seemingly tangential revelation of Olivia; while it was good to get to know her I didn't see the usefulness of her reveal nor of the Knapps to the storyline.

Overall it was a great story with fun characters. I'm looking forward to it's conclusion. show less

Summary: Ginny Blackstone's Aunt Peg was always a free spirit, an artist, and a traveler. She died a few months ago, but she's left behind something for Ginny: a series of envelopes. The first one contains $1000, and instructions to get a passport and buy a ticket to London, with strict guidelines: she can only bring what she can fit in a backpack, no guidebooks or maps, no cell phones or credit cards or cameras, no communication with anyone back in the US. Once she's completed that task, she can open the second envelope. Ginny's not a world traveler, and is extremely shy around strangers, but as her aunt's letters lead her on a series of increasingly strange lessons around Europe, she (very slowly) starts to come out of her show more shell.

Review: Yet another book that it seems like a lot of people LURVED, and I just liked. It was definitely a fun read, and I tore through it in less than a day. It's well-written, it's funny, it's got a good ear for dialogue, and it definitely inspired a serious case of wanderlust - I want to go backpacking through Europe! Where's my rich eccentric aunt? The romance angle isn't really the main focus of the story, but was cute nevertheless. But despite it being enjoyable overall, I had two problems that kept me from getting totally involved in the story.

First, I wasn't crazy about the decision to start the book right as Ginny embarks on her trip. Because we don't get the chance to know anything about Ginny pre-travel (although we can infer from things that happen later), it makes it harder to see how she's changing over the course of her journey, and thus I never entirely identified with her. Second, where the hell were Ginny's parents? From what we're told about her mom's relationship with her Aunt Peg, there's no way in the world her mother would be like "So, you're going to Europe alone, with no cash, no means of communicating with home, and no idea of where you're going to be or where you're going to be staying, and you'll be gone for some indefinite amount of time, all because your dead aunt said so in a letter? Sure, honey, have fun!" It may be a relatively minor point in a book that's really all about Ginny's adventures along the way, but it still bugged me, because I am a) old, and b) apparently turning into my mother (who, for what it's worth, would probably have let me seventeen-year-old me go alone to Europe, but would have demanded regular phone calls.) 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: So, overall, I enjoyed it, but there were a few sticking points that kept me from being head-over-heels about it. Recommended for people who like contemporary YA and are planning (or daydreaming about) a European vacation. show less

This book needs a better cover. Yes, don't judge a book and all that...but I do. And you do, too, don't lie. I was prepared for this to be a sort of traveling pants book. And I liked those books, but I didn't *really* like them. This is the first book I've read by Johnson and I couldn't put it down.
After her aunt's death, Ginny is given a set of envelopes from said aunt that lead her on a European adventure. Her aunt also includes rules--No maps, no contact with America, no cell phone, take only what you can carry. While some of the rules make it seem unlikely that still-in-high-school Ginny would ever have undertaken the journey (no cell phone? No contact with America? Even to touch base?), the results of the travel are indisputably show more wonderful. The travels are not fun, necessarily...Ginny seems too shell-shocked, shy and self-consciously aware that this is an assignment to completely immerse herself, but yet she grows, changes, comes out of her shell. And at the end she's gained much more than the surprises her aunt leaves for her.
I found Ginny to be a nicely fleshed-out character. At first I pictured her as kind of backwards and awkward based on her own descriptions of herself. But as Ginny meets people and I began to see her through their eyes as well, I realized that she wasn't backwards so much as quiet, wasn't awkward so much as inexperienced and naive. Plus people seemed drawn to her. Some stepped in to sort of take care of her, but some just seemed drawn to being with her--she was much more interesting than she herself realized.
The people that Ginny meets one her journey were also believable--from the family so busy racing through their vacation that they couldn't really see anything, to the charming London artist Ginny finds herself drawn toward, to the straight-laced, respectable man who finally helps her discover the reality of her aunt's last days.
While Johnson obviously deals with grief and mourning in the book, she avoids over-wrought emotional scenes and allows her characters to grieve in cathartic ways. In other words the grieving is for the characters, not for the readers. It was nice to understand Ginny's pain and even to feel it, but also not to feel like I was being manipulated into sobbing with her. show less