The Little Green Envelope

Olive is sad because her friend moved away. On her regular Sunday visit with her Grandpa, he suggests she send her friend a letter. A little green envelope overhears this conversation and sympathizes; it also feels lonely as it watches its friends come and go while it is constantly overlooked. Olive writes her letter, and, when it is time for an envelope to be chosen, Grandpa reaches into the desk drawer and grabs….a plain white envelope. It appears little green has been left out again. But, suddenly, Olive pipes up - “Wait!” she says, seeing little green sticking out of the drawer. The green envelope is retrieved and deemed to be perfect for the job. The letter is stuffed in, and the envelope travels through the mail system and ends up at its final destination, in the hands of the friend who is overjoyed.

The Little Green Envelope is a sweet, gentle story. The personification of the envelope is a fresh take on the friend-moving-away theme and is sure to delight young readers. The writing is clear and concise with enough flourish to make it interesting but not so much that the story goes off track. There is a nice build of tension as the reader hopes, along with the envelope, that it will finally get chosen. Included at the end is a cute wordless diagram that shows how readers can make their own envelope, encouraging them to send their own mail.

The illustrations are a combination of paper construction and printmaking techniques which match the subject matter. Using a soft palette of mostly neutral colours, artist/illustrator Crangle manages to capture a great amount of depth using just paper. The details are particularly lovely from the assortment of envelopes portrayed to the miscellany (a binder clip, a penny, keys) in the desk drawer. Crangle also does an excellent job of conveying the characters’ emotions: Olive’s sadness is shown by her hunched up posture, her arms wrapped around her knees; the green envelope conveys emotion with a set of googly eyes and the various ways it is crumpled.

The Little Green Envelope is a lovely book for anyone feeling the friend-moving-away sads or who just likes to send and receive mail.