Flipped
Wendelin Van Draanen (2001)
“Two kids see the same events from opposite sides — and the reader discovers that the truth is never as simple as one person's version of it.”
Short Summary
When second-grader Juli Baker meets Bryce Loski, she falls for him instantly. Bryce wants nothing to do with her. Over the next six years, their story unfolds in alternating chapters — the same events told first by one, then the other — revealing how completely two people can misread each other. Juli climbs a sycamore tree, raises chickens, and grows into someone with convictions. Bryce coasts on good looks and his father's approval until his grandfather Chet forces him to see what he's been missing. By eighth grade, the flip is complete: Juli has outgrown her crush, and Bryce has finally begun to see her clearly.
Detailed Summary
Juli Baker is six years old when Bryce Loski moves into the house across the street, and she decides immediately that he is the love of her life. Bryce, horrified by her intensity, spends the next several years trying to escape her attention. This asymmetry — one pursuing, one fleeing — structures t...