Flipped is about two kids in eighth grade: Bryce Loski and Juli Baker. The two have lived across the street from each other for six years but they are, by no means, friends. Juli says, "My Bryce. Still walking around with my first kiss." But he says, "It's been six years of strategic avoidance and social discomfort." However, after a series of events that makes each of them question what they thought they knew, their views on each other, their families and themselves are flipped. He says, "I'd spent so many years avoiding Juli Baker that I'd never really looked at her, but now I couldn't stop." And she says, "I felt a cold, hard knot tighten in my heart. I was through with Bryce Loski."
I decided to read this book after seeing the movie on TV. Well, I really liked the movie and, whenever I do, I always look to see if there's a book. And, when I found it, I remembered seeing the book before. I think it kind of fell in that time where I was the right age to read it but I was reading teenager books rather than middle-grade books. And then when I got older and went backwards and started reading middle-grade books I had forgotten about it. So I've finally read it...and I enjoyed it immensely. I finished it in about two days. Granted, the print is on the larger side and it's only just over 200 pages, but that did not make me love it any less. So what did I like, exactly?
Well it took me back to that time of being in middle school and crushing on a guy that wanted nothing to do with you. But, somehow, filled you with happiness, anyway. And I loved the character of Juli Baker. She was, even at the age of only 13 or 14, exactly the kind of person I want to be. She was brave, headstrong but kind. She stood up for what he believed in, even when it was something as small as a sycamore tree. And she wasn't afraid to care deeply about things. And, while this may be a bit beyond expectations of any actual middle-schooler, it reads completely genuine. Bryce was a more realistic character. He was nice enough but easily susceptible to what others thought of him (but then, most of us are) and willing to hide his thoughts or actions so as not to go against the crowd. By the end, however, he gets past this (without giving away any spoilers though I think you can probably guess how it ends).
Overall, it was just a really sweet and cute book about two eighth graders whose views on everything around them are completely changed.
