13 Envelopes
Would you follow the instructions?
In “13 Little Blue Envelopes” by Maureen Johnson, Ginny Blackstone receives a letter from her Aunt who years before disappeared to travel overseas. In fact she receives thirteen letters each of which, as you can imagine, are in little blue envelopes.
The first envelope sets the tone of the ones that follow. It contains the rules that are poised to set Ginny out on an adventure. In this message Ginny is told not to open all of the envelopes at once, but rather to open each one as she is instructed to.
The envelopes lead Ginny on an international road trip. The first facilitates the trip, the second specifies the specific destination in London, and the third begins a story that lasts the span of the trip.
This is a novel about leaving behind the constraints of who you’ve been, to get a glimpse at who you are meant to be. While the trip is generally laid out by the messages left by Ginny’s aunt, she makes the adventure her own. It is her chance to meet new people, see new places, and make discoveries about who she is and is going to be.
Comments
2 Responses to “13 Envelopes”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...[...] first book I ever read by Maureen Johnson was “13 Little Blue Envelopes”, and once I had I was hooked. If you haven’t read it, and have an issue with spoilers, then [...]
[...] not sure what I expected of the sequel to “13 Little Blue Envelopes”, but what I got certainly wasn’t it. It was ten times better than anything I could have [...]