Flipped

Flipped

Cover of Flipped
Author	Wendelin Van Draanen
Original title	Flipped
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Young adult Romance novel Realistic Fictiontutle
Publisher	Random House
Publication date	October 1, 2001
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	212
ISBN
OCLC	54473063

Flipped (2001) is a young adult novel by Wendelin Van Draanen set from c.1994 to 2000. 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.

Juli Baker meets Bryce Loski two weeks before the beginning of second grade; it's something about those blue eyes that attract her. Julianna knows it's love, while Bryce, like any seven-year-old boy, doesn't. Julianna stalks Bryce all through his childhood; staring at his house, asking him to play, following him at school, etc. Every day, Bryce watches Julianna climb the sycamore tree at the bus stop, from which Julianna always watches the town. She constantly asks Bryce to come join her in the tree, as well as yelling out how far away the bus is. Bryce, being unbelievably shy and annoyed by all the attention, asks out Juli's arch enemy, Shelly Stalls, to get rid of his admirer. Bryce looks over his shoulder for Julianna every time he's with Shelly, which causes Julianna to think he's being forced to date her. This provokes a catfight between Juli and Shelly over Bryce. The two break up, and Bryce is back to square one. There comes an incident in sixth grade when, much to Bryce's chagrin and irritation, Juli constantly sniffs Bryce's hair in spelling from her assigned position behind him. According to Juli, his hair smells like watermelon and he has blond earlobe fuzz. Bryce is disgruntled from this seat change, because Juli had initially sat next to him where he could see her answers and copy off of them. Now that she's behind him, he's lost that advantage, and his grades slip, especially in spelling. This halts, however, when as Juli sniffs him, she begins to whisper answers in his ear. Bryce, torn between feeling grateful and awkwardly guilty for hating her so much when she's helping him, follows the answers anyway until the end of the year.

Juli, on the other hand, can't stop thinking about Bryce in the many years she's known him. Obliviously missing his discomfort being around her, she continues to try to get him to like her. However, Juli's motives change when her beloved sycamore tree is cut down. Although Juli stays up in the branches for hours and misses school to protest its excision, she is brought down and isn't the same for weeks. Unbeknownst to Juli, Bryce feels horribly about Juli's tree, considering Juli asked Bryce to come up to protest with her and he declined. He frets over whether he could have made a difference, and contemplates many times apologizing to Juli but chickens out each time. Matters aren't helped when Bryce's wise but stubborn grandfather takes a fond liking to Juli and pesters Bryce to be friends with her—he doesn't seem to understand Bryce's annoyance with the girl. Juli's spirits are lightened when her father, who she admires more than anyone, paints her a picture of her sycamore tree. Juli often sits out with her dad on the porch for hours, listening to him talk and watching him paint. Juli hangs the picture in her room so she'll always be reminded of what the tree represented for her.