Thursday, July 01, 2010

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1000 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 her artist, a playwright/thief/bloke-about-town called Keith, go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous–though utterly romantic–results. Ginny isn’t sure she’ll see Keith again, and definitely doesn’t know what to think about him. Could the answer be in the envelopes? Ginny doesn’t know it, but adventures in Rome and Paris are in envelopes 6 and 8. The rules are that she has to open one at a time, in order, so perhaps it isn’t surprising that she discovers things about her life and love one by one. Everything about Ginny will change this summer, and it’s all because of the 13 little blue envelopes.

When I heard about this book, I thought it was such a cute idea. Beloved Aunt Peg gives Ginny an adventure for the summer via 13 little blue envelopes. Ginny becomes a whole new woman in a few short weeks because of said adventure. So, here are my thoughts after reading it...

WTH?!?!?!?!

This is seriously the recurring thought I had. As I am reading about a TEENAGE girl traipsing around Europe BY HERSELF (and occasionally with a strange criminal college kid) with just a wussy little backpack because some nutcase dead aunt tells her to.... really?? I was waiting for it to turn into some rape/murder/body-buried-somewhere-in-some-unknown-location-never-to-be-found psycho novel. It never did, but with the "adventures" she had, it's a wonder it ended somewhat well at all. Maybe it's because I am a mother now, maybe it's simply because I have common sense, but heaven help the girl that reads this and thinks, "What a fabulous idea!!"

Don't read this. It will annoy you too.

1 comment:

Chantele Sedgwick said...

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!! Love you!