13 Little Blue Envelopes
by Maureen Johnson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Maureen JohnsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-26
ISBN: 0060541431
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Book Reviews of 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Book Review: Not the Best MJ Read
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Summary of 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1,000 and instructions to buy a plane ticket.
In envelope 2 are directions to a specific London flat.
The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist.
Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/ bloke?about?town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous?though utterly romantic?results. But will she ever see him again?
Everything about Ginny will change this summer, and it's all because of the 13 little blue envelopes.
Ages 12+
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