Review for Author Maureen Johnson

Ginny’s madcap Aunt Peg has died, but not before leaving some really peculiar instructions for Ginny. She was to fill her backpack with the necessities, which did NOT include travel guides, language aids, journals, money, credit cards, cell phones, laptops, cameras, etc.  Basically that meant that all Ginny can take is clothes,but not too many because Ginny would be carrying everything in her backpack.  Oh, and who can forget the 13 little blue envelopes she received addressed to herself. Ginny was to start with envelope #1, which would give her instructions and lead her to the spot where she was to open envelope #2, and so on.Ginny’s travels led her throughout Europe, and introduced her not only to some memorable characters, but to her aunt and to herself. I really enjoyed this book because it was another coming-of-age novel. I loved that not everything was rosy-posy. Not everything happened according to plan, and seeing how Ginny reacted and learned to roll with the punches was delightful. It made the book and the characters seem more realistic. I would recommend this novel to any pre-teen/teen girl who is ready to take a journey of self-realization.