THE LAST LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPE

Ginny Blackstone returns for another delightfully madcap adventure in Europe in this follow-up to Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes (2005). Seemingly out of nowhere, Ginny receives an e-mail containing a scanned copy of the never-opened 13th and final letter from her deceased aunt, stolen along with her backpack while she hopped from country to country in the first novel. The person in possession of the letter instructs her to respond if she’s interested, leading her back to England, where she gets another chance to see her not-boyfriend Keith, with whom she has a relationship that they’ve agreed is “kind of something.” Inevitably, they embark on another trip encompassing France, Belgium, Holland and, eventually, a messy, drunken New Year’s Eve in Ireland, though this time with the addition of two new, not altogether welcome traveling companions. Ginny’s narrative, told in an intelligent, third-person voice, establishes her firmly as a sympathetic, often hilarious everygirl, whose efforts to understand herself and who she’d like to be are fraught with moments both romantic and heartbreaking. Johnson’s skill in creating secondary characters that are unusual, realistically flawed and utterly believable is again on display here. While there are no big surprises in this oft-told story of a teen’s growth through travel and new relationships, this is an appealingly smart and honest read that fans of the first will find deeply satisfying. (Fiction. 12 & up)