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#92 Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen (2001)
20 points
If I’d discovered this book at eleven I would have read it five hundred times. Juli Baker is the embodiment of the passion with which I longed to live life. Today I can hand it to any girl at my school, only to be greeted at our next meeting with the words, “It’s my new favorite book.” – Danae Leu
The ultimate home-run book – never had it returned because “I didn’t like it.” – Emily Willis
Shall I confess to you now that before I started releasing these results I had to remove two books that I considered too “teen”? It was very sad. One was The Hunger Games, a book that I know is loved and read by 5th & 6th graders and the other Totally Joe by James Howe. It broke my heart to take them off but both were marketed to a primarily teen audience and a person has to draw the line somewhere. Flipped proved to be on the cusp as well, but I noticed that what set it apart was its willingness to appeal to both kids AND teens. You’ll find it in children’s sections of the library. You’ll find it in teen sections as well. So it with some interest that I welcome Wendelin Van Draanen to this Top 100 list for the very first time.
Publishers Weekly described the book in this way: “Two distinct, thoroughly likable voices emerge in Van Draanen’s (the Sammy Keyes series) enticing story, relayed alternately by eighth graders Bryce and Juli. When Juli moved in across the street from Bryce, just before second grade, he found the feisty, friendly girl overwhelming and off-putting, and tried to distance himself from her but then eighth grade rolls around. Within the framework of their complex, intermittently antagonistic and affectionate rapport, the author shapes insightful portraits of their dissimilar families. Among the most affecting supporting characters are Bryce’s grandfather, who helps Juli spruce up her family’s eyesore of a yard after Bryce makes an unkind remark about the property, and Juli’s father, a deep-feeling artist who tries to explain to his daughter how a painting becomes more than the sum of its parts. Juli finally understands this notion after she discovers the exhilaration of sitting high in a beloved tree in her neighborhood (‘The view from my sycamore was more than rooftops and clouds and wind and colors combined’).”
As for the professional reviews, I have to say they were pretty universally positive. Though the book never got a Newbery (or a Printz for that matter) somehow in spite of all that it continues to garner fans today.
Said Publishers Weekly, “With a charismatic leading lady kids will flip over, a compelling dynamic between the two narrators and a resonant ending (including a clever double entendre on the title), this novel is a great deal larger than the sum of its parts.”
SLJ chimed in with, “Well-rounded secondary characters keep subplots rolling in this funny, fast-paced, egg-cellent winner.”
Said Booklist, “The author of the popular Sammy Keyes mysteries proves herself just as good at writing a charming romance.”
Kirkus pointed out that “The text stretches credibility in a couple of ways, especially with the premise that a seven-year-old is capable of a long-lasting romantic infatuation. It is, nevertheless, a highly agreeable romantic comedy tempered with the pointed lesson (demonstrated by the straining of Bryce’s parents’ marriage) that the ‘choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life&
6 Comments on Top 100 Children’s Novels #92: Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen, last added: 5/16/2012
An excellent book with a Rashomon-like feel (same incidents, reported very differently by different characters who experienced it). I thought the movie did a very good job of keeping the feel of the story and the characters.
Brandy said, on 5/15/2012 9:59:00 AM
This is the biggest surprise of the day as far as I’m concerned. Very interesting. This has been on my TBR forever and will now be moved up to the top and finally read.
Lisa Jenn Bigelow said, on 5/15/2012 12:59:00 PM
Totally Joe a YA book, what? Kirkus and PW reviewed it as ages 10-14, SLJ as grades 6-8. We’re well within children’s lit as defined by Newbery age requirements there!
Elizabeth Bird said, on 5/15/2012 2:16:00 PM
I love it to pieces, Lisa, but it’s post-adolescent. If this were the Newbery it would be in the clear but I’m going up to 12 and 12 isn’t Joe’s audience. Throw thy rotten tomatoes at me head at will.
DaNae said, on 5/15/2012 2:42:00 PM
Thrilled to see my number ten pick make the cut. This wasn’t on my list the first time around. It nudged off THE OUTSIDERS, which I know is YA, although I read it a bazillion times when I was eleven.
FLIPPED is middle-grade perfection.
I’m crazy over the movie. As of now I would like to send out the decree: if any of my other favorite books really need to be made into movies only Rob Reiner shall lay hands on them.
Genevieve said, on 5/16/2012 7:44:00 AM
Never heard of Totally Joe, so I just put it on hold – looks good.
Okay, so it's another Saturday and I'm now getting around to my WOW . . . egads! Things have been quite crazy with my day job, so needless to say my 3 posts-a-week isn't quite happening right now. I'm still hoping once things calm down in the next week or two, I'll be back to normal.
Having said that, I need to get down to business . . .
The WOW for this week is:
IRIDESCENT!
Iridescent: 1. Producing a display of lustrous, rainbow-like colors. 2. Brilliant, lustrous or colorful in effect or appearance.
Iridescent is one of those special, unique words you don't see everyday. The kind you bring out during a special occasion . . . like when you bring out the fine china for an anniversary, or Thanksgiving.
In all the years I've been reading, it's one of the few words I rarely hear. However some 4 or 5 years ago, I was reading a Middle Grade novel that I had heard some good things about, and decided to give it a whirl. In the book, FLIPPED, by Wendelin Van Draanen, one of the main characters (Bryce) has a conversation with his grandpa regarding the other main character (Juli). The grandpa uses the word iridescent to describe Juli . . . saying how people like that are so incredibly colorful in their personality and beauty that nothing compares to knowing them.
The reason why I'm mentioning all this is because FLIPPED came out in the movie theaters earlier this month. Here's the trailer . . .
Sorry for the extended video border . . . having a hard time getting it to fit in my box.
I love this book so much . . . I hope everyone gets a chance to see just how iridescent all these characters are.
Have a great weekend! :)
0 Comments on Another WOW Saturday! Am I starting a new trend? as of 1/1/1900
As a former middle school English teacher, I had the best excuse in the world for reading young adult literature as much as I wanted. I found some great books in the five years that I taught. One sure-fire hit with both boys and girls is a fun story from Wendelin Van Draanen, author of the Sammy Keyes mysteries. Her novel Flipped branches into a different genre; it’s a little bit of romance, quite a bit of humor, and a lot of coming of age.
The story focuses on Juli Baker and Bryce Loski who are (at least on Bryce’s part) reluctant neighbors. She’s the bane of his existence but he’s the apple of her eye. She falls madly in love with him when the Bakers move in across the street during the kids’ second grade year. That’s the same day Bryce pinpoints as the start of all his troubles. Van Draanen uses the interesting device of relating the same incident through each character’s point-of-view. You hear about an infamous hair smelling incident from Juli, who views it as the culmination of a long-held wish, and then from Bryce for whom the experience is mortifying. The opinions they each have of each other stay the same as they grow until they reach eighth grade. That’s when free-spirited, big hearted Juli wonders if Bryce is less than she’s cracked him up to be and Bryce begins to realize that Juli might be a whole lot more.
There are several layers to this story which is why so many of my students enjoyed it. It was one of only two novels that they begged to continue when we finished with our assigned pages each day. The girls like the romance of the ungettable boy and the boys related to Bryce who is a realistically depicted eighth grade guy. He’s a dude’s dude. They all loved the humor that’s laced throughout. But my adult friends found it engaging too, because the layers go way past an adolescent love story. While the refreshing switch in perspective in each chapter is enough to keep the pages turning, it’s really the deeper dynamics that kept my attention. There are complicated and poignant relationships with characters like Juli’s artist father and Bryce’s taciturn grandfather. And there are key lessons about maintaining and respecting individuality and learning to suspend judgment. This is a completely satisfying read.
(Best suited for 7th grade and up).
0 Comments on Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen as of 1/1/1900
Ah! So glad to find this blog! I've searched for something like this but never had the gumption to put it together myself. Thanks! I'll be checking in. B.
#92 Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen (2001)
An excellent book with a Rashomon-like feel (same incidents, reported very differently by different characters who experienced it). I thought the movie did a very good job of keeping the feel of the story and the characters.
This is the biggest surprise of the day as far as I’m concerned. Very interesting. This has been on my TBR forever and will now be moved up to the top and finally read.
Totally Joe a YA book, what? Kirkus and PW reviewed it as ages 10-14, SLJ as grades 6-8. We’re well within children’s lit as defined by Newbery age requirements there!
I love it to pieces, Lisa, but it’s post-adolescent. If this were the Newbery it would be in the clear but I’m going up to 12 and 12 isn’t Joe’s audience. Throw thy rotten tomatoes at me head at will.
Thrilled to see my number ten pick make the cut. This wasn’t on my list the first time around. It nudged off THE OUTSIDERS, which I know is YA, although I read it a bazillion times when I was eleven.
FLIPPED is middle-grade perfection.
I’m crazy over the movie. As of now I would like to send out the decree: if any of my other favorite books really need to be made into movies only Rob Reiner shall lay hands on them.
Never heard of Totally Joe, so I just put it on hold – looks good.