13 Little Blue Envelopes

 
This was the first Maureen Johnson I read, likely back in 2005 when the book came out. I remember buying it at Target. 

I don't remember my initial thoughts on it. It's too long ago. 

The book follows 17-year-old Virginia, called Ginny, on a wild trip across Europe. 

Her aunt was one of her favorite people, an unpredictable artist who lived in New York City until one day, she just didn't. She ran off to Europe and ended up living with a man in London, though she left him and went on a trip across Europe that she sends Ginny to sort of replicate. Aunt Peg is likeable but at the same time, hard to like. She should have contacted her family when she realized she was sick. She died of a brain tumor and then a couple years later, Ginny received a letter from her that sent her to NYC to pick up a package containing 13 little blue envelopes. 

Ginny is tasked with traveling across Europe with very strict and really severely dangerous rules. 

She's only to take what fits in a backpack and she's not to bring any guidebooks. Okay, those seem reasonable. 

She can't bring extra money. Aha, now we're getting problematic. One of the envelopes contains a bank card with quite a bit of money on it, but definitely not enough in case problems arise. Definitely, definitely not enough for a teenager in Europe on her own. 

The fourth rule is extra dangerous though. She can't bring a phone. This was written in the earlier days of cell phones, so regular phones were probably much more accessible, but still. Let her bring a phone for emergencies. Come on. She's not supposed to have a computer or music either. That I understand. No distractions from the experience. But no phone is dangerous. And no camera is just plain mean. Peg was an artist so you'd think she would have wanted Ginny to have more than just mental reminders of where she was. But then again, artists can be weird.

So off Ginny goes to complete the tasks set forth in her aunt's envelopes. She goes to London, Edinburgh, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Greece. She gets into a wide assortment of strange situations and mild trouble. She meets a theater guy in London who sort of becomes her boyfriend. She gets into some really uncomfortable situations that made me cringe to read, like when she can't tell the random American family in Amsterdam that she doesn't need to come along and follow their ridiculous itinerary. And then they give her an itemized BILL at the end of it all. That's why she needed access to more money, Peg. She's not assertive. 

In the end, she gets her backpack, including the final envelope, stolen in Greece. You'd think this would be a disappointing ending, but it works out. Through the twelfth letter, she learns her aunt loved Richard (the guy she stayed with in London) and he loved her. Richard gets her out of Greece and back to London, where he blurts out that the pair were married, though it was for health insurance reasons. Then Ginny and boyfriend Keith find a key hidden behind a poster, a key that leads to Peg's secret studio that Richard made for her in Harrods. They find Peg's stash of final paintings, an artistic representation of her travels and her illness. And as Peg was just beginning to be known in the art world, these end up selling for $133,000. All this goes to Ginny, though she leaves half with Richard. 

So Ginny does a bit of a coming of age thing, though I do hope she travels more safely in the future and actually appreciates more what she experiences. I never knew until recently that there was a sequel and that is what I'm reading next.