Flipped

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Flipped

Cover of Flipped
Author Wendelin Van Draanen
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Young Adult
Romance novel
Realistic Fiction
Publisher Random House
Publication date October 1, 2001
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 212 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-375-82544-4

Flipped (2002) is a young adult novel by Wendelin Van Draanen. It is a stand-alone teen romance in a he-said she-said style with the two protagonists alternately presenting their perspective on a shared set of events. In the beginning, Juli falls hard for Bryce, or more accurately, for his blue eyes... Naturally, being 7, Bryce has no interest. However, as the novel progresses, both children grow up, and their emotions change drastically.

[edit] Plot

From the very first moment Juli heard a boy her age was moving into her neighborhood, she couldn't wait for him to arrive. All the other kids were too old or too young to hang out with, and she wanted Bryce to be the playmate she'd always wanted. When she sees him, with his shiny black hair and bright blue eyes, she knows it's love. She knows this boy is ‘carrying around’ her very first kiss.

Bryce has a very different first impression of Juli. She's an annoying, know-it-all kid with muddy shoes and a bad habit of hanging around. From the very first moment he sees her climbing over the boxes in the moving van, “helping” and leaving tracks of muddy footprints all over, he knows this girl is bad news.It gets even worse when his mom sees Juli holding his hand and thinks it's all very cute.To get away from Juli he spends his first week inside, watching TV.

Over the years Juli and Bryce continue to bump into each other, and as Juli's falls madly in love with him,she gets even more annoying. He feels that he wants to be nice to her. After all, during tests she whispers the answers in his ear and you just can't ignore someone that's keeping you from failing spelling.

Bryce goes to the bus stop every morning and gets on the bus.And Juli climbs up a 20ft tree every morning and gets on the bus.By tree I mean the giant tree in front of the bus stop the sycomore tree, but one day, while Juli climbs up the tree as usual and Bryce sits there like a potato,a truck pulls up and men get out with axes and chainsaws the 'works'.When the bus pulls up the workers ask Juli to get down,she refuses.The bus pulls away with out question but Juli stays in the tree.She stays there all day because her dad said he would go up there with her. When her Dad arrives He tells her to get down it will be OK shell get over the tree.With much fuss she gets down .When Bryce gets home nothings wrong to him, but Juli's heart was broken.

Then, Juli catches Bryce throwing away the eggs she's been giving him every week for free (from her pet chickens). Bryce then tells Juli that he will not eat the eggs because her backyard (where the chickens are at) is filthy. Then she begins cleaning her whole yard front and back as a project. With the help of Chet(Bryce's grandfather) she's able to clean the whole yard and begins to realize that she doesn't know Bryce at all. All these years, she's never even had a real conversation with him.Now she thinks, he's not worth it.

Now, Bryce is in love with Juli. He had never noticed how her eyes sparkle, or how smart she is, with an enthusiasm that never stops.Maybe there's something special about Juli, but she's not falling over him.

When Bryce is chosen as a ‘basket boy’, a boy whose lunch is auctioned off, (though it's usually the boy himself the girls want when they buy the lunch) Juli ‘buys’ another boy. Bryce flips and tries to kiss her in a desperate attempt to show her that he cares, before she starts falling over this other boy. In the end Bryce replaces the grass that Juli planted with a sycamore tree as a final attempt to prove that he cares for her. And Juli thinks that maybe there's more to him than she knows, and maybe it's time to really meet him.

[edit] Critical reception

  • "Van Draanen has another winner in this eighth-grade 'he-said, she-said' romance." - School Library Journal, Starred
  • "We flipped over this fantastic book." - The Chicago Tribune
  • "A highly agreeable romantic comedy." - Kirkus Reviews
  • "A really great book that most kids would and should love to read."


[edit] Awards and nominations

  • 2003
    • Won: Virginia Young Readers Program Award
    • Won: South Carolina Children's Book Award
  • 2004
    • Won: California Young Reader Medal
    • Won: Nevada Young Readers Award
    • Nominated: Illinois Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award