[REVIEW] 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Title: 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Series: Little Blue Envelopes #1
Author: Maureen Johnson
Cover Design: Amy Ryan
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2005
Pages: 332
ISBN: 9780061825194

Booking the ticket, packing the backpack, hugging everyone good-bye, and then traveling in foreign lands. These are the aforementioned rules that will guide your travels:
Rule #1: You may bring only what fits in your backpack. DON'T try to fake it out with a purse or a carry-on.
Rule #2: You may NOT bring guidebooks, phrase books, or any kind of foreign language aid. And NO JOURNALS.
Rule #3: You CANNOT bring extra money or credit/debit cards, traveler's checks, etc. I'll take care of all that.
Rule #4: No electronic crutches. This means NO LAPTOP, NO CELL PHONE, NO MUSIC, and NO CAMERA. You can't call home or communicate with people in the U.S. by internet or telephone. Postcards and letters are acceptable and encouraged.

Aunt Peg was Ginny's Runaway Aunt who has just passed-away in thirty-five-years old. Looks lame to Ginny. Lively in thirty-five-year-olds weren't supposed to die. But she did. And she left Ginny a letter (the first one). The first letter which meant the start of the other twelfth.

Ginny should read the letter depends on number given in each envelopes. Before she read the next letter, she should fulfill every tasks given in the previous one. That's the rule. If she read all of those without obeying the rule, the hidden message from Aunt Peg would never been solved. Maybe the message was about Aunt Peg's life which she never know before. And it must be serious thing to know since Aunt Peg's death was such a mystery.

Here, without no guidebooks or anything which is supposed to be the travelers' need, Ginny made her own traveling life only with these 13 little blue envelopes. Could she fulfill all of the tasks given in all envelopes? What the hidden message would be? Find out what happened to Ginny in her suddenly-traveling-life here.. :)

A footprint is made by a shoe, but it is not the shoe itself. (page 255)

My first 'WOW' about this book is: the cover! Indeed. It's a beautiful cover. I firstly insisted reading this book because of the beautiful cover. Even I didn't read the synopsis, just decided 'I'll read this someday'. Anyway, now I have read this one and I think this is a kind of enjoyable novel especially if you read this when you're in your trip or something like that.

Maureen told this story through her fun-writing that you'll never be bored. Moreover, every different foreign lands Ginny traveled was completely explained. Sometimes I felt like I was there with Ginny. Seeing the Vestal Virgins, the Eiffel Tower, the London Streets, being there together in her life with the Knapps and swimming with her in an island in Greece. My favorite place is when she was in Knudd's house. Hope someday I could go there. Eating that fresh fishy sandwich in a small wooden cabin and seeing the sun at eleven o'clock at night!!!

About the characters. My favorites are Aunt Peg and Richard. Aunt Peg was a cool aunt and Ginny should thank God she has had aunt like her. I love her although she has passed away and just left these 13 envelopes. But, really! Maureen made Aunt Peg's auras still alive here in this novel. And Aunt Peg's craziness through artwork was amazing. Aunt Peg loved painting, anyway. Don't be surprised if then you'll read some about artwork and its people here! :) Richard was lovable guy although he was not a teen anymore. He's respectful and everything he has done to Ginny and Aunt Peg seemed right. I wonder if there's a guy like him in this real world. :p What about Ginny? I like her, too, since she's a fun girl with random thought and behavior. Sometimes, she made me laugh with her act.

The thing that disturb me is the words and some idioms here. I'm not that good in English, by the way. LOL. And.. there's this one thing that disturb me. It's when Ginny made out with this guy named Keith in graveyard! Graveyard?! Oh, come on. There's so many good places in Paris. Why the hell you two made out in graveyard?! ._.

Well.. forget it! At last, I wanna say that this is enjoyable novel to read. I recommend this to you since I give 4/5 stars for Aunt Peg and her envelopes. :))

And these are my favorite quotes:

Talent alone doesn't make an artist. You need a little serendipity, a little luck, a little boost. -Aunt Peg (page 51)

...given the choice between making a huge effort for guys I wasn't really interested in or being an independent human being, I decided to be an independent creature. -Ginny (page 69)

People don't change. You just sort of have to take them like they are. -Keith (page 99)

We want to remember, and we want to be remembered. -Mari Adams (page 112)