Flipped Review By: Ayisha Hernandez

Flipped (Middle Grade)

Van Draanen, Wendelin. (2001). Flipped. New York, New York: Random House, Inc.

Juli Baker is absolutely in love with Bryce Loski but Bryce just thinks of her as his annoying neighbor. Juli tries to save a Sycamore Tree from being cut down and even begs Bryce to join her, but Bryce just thinks she is being weird Juli Baker again.  Juli incubates eggs for their school science fair and ends up with chickens. She has so many eggs she decides to sell them and give some to Bryce’s family. Unfortunately, because of the look of Juli’s house, Bryce assumes that the eggs are dirty and covered in chicken poop so he throws them in the garbage. One day he gets caught by Juli and she is mortified. It isn’t until Bryce’s Grandfather begins to talk to Juli and helps her fix up her house , does Bryce begin to understand Juli for who she really is. The problem is that it might be too late.

Wendelin Van Draanen really has a knack for writing for the preteen to early teen readers. I decided to read this book after reading Van Draanen’s story, Runaway. The title of the book confused me because I wasn’t sure what it meant or what it had to do with the story. After reading the first chapter from Bryce’s perspective, I began to develop the same opinion towards Juli Baker as Bryce. It wasn’t until I reached chapter 2 that I realized the story was going to be told from both Bryce and Juli’s perspectives. Van Draanen will introduce one situation and tell it through Bryce’s perspective and then tell the exact same story through the perspective of Juli. This is why the story is called Flipped. The story is told from one perspective and then flipped around and told from another character’s perspective. I found the story to be very appealing. As I read I was eager to see what the other character had missed or misinterpreted from their perspective. The story seems to be very relatable for preteens and early teens.  I think this story would be well received by students in grades Fifth all the way up to Middle and maybe early High School. This story would also be a great text to pull samples to teach about perspective in literature.