Flipped

Flipped is a young adult book written by Wendelin Van Draanen. This book is written from both the view point of a girl, Julianna (Juli), and a boy, Bryce. The story starts out with Bryce describing how from the moment he and his family moved into the neighborhood Juli, "barged and shoved and wedged her way into [his life]," (Van Draanen, p. 1). During the first parts of the book Juli obsesses over Bryce following him every where. Bryce, however, hates that she will not leave him alone and tries everything to get rid of her. During middle school is when the story gets "flipped". Juli over hears Bryce's friend talking badly about her and when Bryce laughs at the comments Juli is furious. She then starts to hate Bryce much the way he hated her before. What Juli doesn't know is that Bryce was actually furious with his friend but was afraid to say something at the risk of losing the friend. After that the story has the main characters flip so that Bryce is now chasing Juli. Do they become friends or even a couple? The story has a very sweet ending that I thought was age appropriate.

I thought that this book was a well written book that would be an age appropriate book for grades 6 and up, even though the book is recommended for grades 5 and up. I think that book gives a great insight to how different the thinking is between boys and girls and how that changes with age. I think that the book would be a great addition to my classroom library that would probably target girls more than boys but I could see boys enjoying the book as well. I do not see using the book as part of my curriculum because I think that some parents might feel differently about introducing a book about a teenage romance into the mainstream classroom. I would recommend it to the girls in my classroom because I think that the insights into how boys feel, think, and act can be valuable to girls who are trying to figure out the opposite sex during those awkward middle school years and vice-versa. I also think that it has a very thoughtful ending that both boys and girls could learn compassion from.