Paperback Reader

The first blue envelope comes in the mail with one thousand dollars and instructions to buy a passport, a ticket to London, and a backpack to carry everything that Virginia “Ginny” Blackstone will need for her travels—everything, that is, except for maps or guidebooks which are strictly forbidden. If that was not weird enough, the letter is from Ginny’s runaway Aunt Peg who’s been dead for several months. Now Ginny’s on an adventure with only thirteen little blue envelopes to guide her way, and each one has a specific task to be completed before she can open the next. As she journeys across Great Britain and Europe, following the path set forth by the letters, Ginny will not only learn more about her Aunt’s life, but will discover that boring Ginny Blackstone is not so boring after all.

Maureen Johnson has created a story that shows the power and heartbreak that can be caused by following the impulse to just leave your life behind. Ginny’s Aunt Peg up and left without even a phone call years ago, sending only sporadic postcards until her death. By leaving to find herself Peg left behind Ginny whom she had promised to be there for, creating within her niece a feeling of resentment at war with the worship her Aunt had always caused. It’s these conflicting feelings that drive Ginny on her Aunt’s quest and it is through Ginny’s first person narrative that we filter each adventure. Instead of giving into the impulse to rely on pat black or white answers, Johnson neither absolves or condemns Peg, allowing the reader and Ginny instead to discover that life is not so simple.

Whether or not Peg was fully aware in her last delirious months of what she was doing by making Ginny follow in her footsteps across Europe and step out of her comfort zone, she provides her niece with the same chance to grow and realize all that she had in her life. In doing so Johnson pulls off the greatest trick of all—one that eludes many authors—allowing Ginny to grow without changing her fundamental personality. At the end of her journey she is still tongue-tied and self-conscious, but she also knows that she can handle whatever life—or Aunt Peg’s little blue envelopes—has to offer. And in learning this, she gets to see and explore a world that her natural hesitance would have kept her from discovering.

Maureen Johnson walks a fine line between teen angst and self-depreciation to make Ginny a character to root for as well as hold up as an example. Sure she occasionally whines and complains (I would too if I’d been trapped with the Knapps), but she also has a sense of humor and a strength of character that sees her through. Thanks to the journey she comes to terms with Peg’s failings and accepts her—or her memory, at least—for what she was: a very flawed woman who didn’t realize what she needed until it was almost too late.

Somehow I don’t think her niece will be making the same mistake.

Maureen Johnson has the ability to create a main character (as well as supporting) that you want to root for and a story that you won’t want to put down until it’s finished. I highly recommend this for adults and teens alike who are looking for something with the humor of a Cabot novel but with a bit more edge and depth.

You can find 13 Little Blue Envelopes here and here, and you can read about Maureen and her adventures with Free Monkey here and here (after you finish reading the novel, that is).