Review: Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

Quick, simple and an easy read.

I wish I'd read this book before I'd hit my reading slump. This would definitely get me out of it. It's fluffy and cute without being too cheesy, childish without being ridiculous. It's wonderful!

Title: Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
Pages: 224
Release Date: December 17th 2008
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Source: Borrowed (Thanks Tina!)
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

The first time she saw him, she flipped. The first time he saw her, he ran. That was the second grade, but not much has changed by the seventh. She says: “My Bryce. Still walking around with my first kiss.” He says: “It’s been six years of strategic avoidance and social discomfort.” But in the eighth grade everything gets turned upside down. And just as he’s thinking there’s more to her than meets the eye, she’s thinking that he’s not quite all he seemed.

This is a classic romantic comedy of errors told in alternating chapters by two fresh, funny new voices. Wendelin Van Draanen is at her best here with a knockout cast of quirky characters and a hilarious series of misunderstandings and missed opportunities. But underlying the humor are two teens in transition. They are each learning to look beyond the surface of people, both figuring out who they are, who they want to be, and who they want to be with.

It was like love at first sight when Juli Baker first laid her eyes on Bryce Loski. Bryce's family just moved in the neighborhood and since then he had to go through the next six years of his life being followed by the shadow of Juli Baker. But Juli isn't just the 'stalker' Bryce thinks she is. And as Bryce gets to know her more, everything he had thought and felt about Juli will turn his world upside down, and maybe, Bryce doesn't hate her after all.

I've had childhood crushes before, and believe me, my heart also flipped at ten, when one day while I was playing hide and seek with my friends, the boy I really liked appeared right in front of me and visited for no apparent reason.

Ah, young love. The innocence of it. But no matter how young you are, I guess love never really is easy.

I loved reading the story switching from Bryce's perspective to Juli's. It's the classic he said, she said scenario 8th grade style with the story going back and forth, seen through a boy who just wants to be left alone and a girl who isn't what she seems, letting the readers feel and know what each character thinks. It felt like I was transported back to when I was a little bit younger, experiencing my first love and all the complications and drama that comes along with it. Very nostalgic.

Flipped goes beyond Bryce and Juli's humorous trial and error ways of trying to figure out each other, but ventures on to what happens in their family and their lives, and the conflicts they experience each day, adding depth to the story. Bryce's dad is a jerk, plain and simple.

But the one thing I love in this book? The lesson.

"A painting is more than the sum of it's parts" felt like a very special quote that defines the book as a whole. Bryce and his family had a certain prejudice against Juli's family, but upon seeing each and every aspect that makes Juli and the rest of her family what they are today, Bryce learns that they might be alright and amazing in their own unique way. And that the girl who he'd always want to leave him alone might very well be the same girl that would make him fall.

Does Juli climbing the Sycamore tree tells us something more than just going up there? Yes, I think. It's about appreciating the beauty of life and everything that surrounds us.

I've watched the movie before I have read the book, and I have to say that I love the movie's ending more. The sense that something is definitely beginning to take place between Bryce and Juli was better portrayed in the movie. All those funny moments and conflict building and the book ending, in my opinion, didn't give it much justice.

Flipped is a heart felt story of friendship, family, love and growing up. Flipped reminds us of the beauty of being young, the thrill of first crushes, first loves, first kisses, and other things we've experienced when we were young that we will never forget. Definitely a book I'd recommend to everyone!

My rating

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