I want to hire and float a conspicuous Blimp that declares in giant letters:*WENDELIN VAN DRAANEN IS MY NEW FAVOURITE AUTHOR*
I don’t need a body of her work to make this declaration. One book is enough. One sweet, solitary book called Flipped is enough.
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Just before Second Grade was about to start, little Juli Baker fell instantly in love with her new next-door neighbour, Bryce Loski. She fell hard for his beautiful blue eyes and followed him around like an eager l’il pup. Sadly, little Bryce Loski didn’t return the sentiment. Juli Baker terrified him, with her heart-on-her-sleeve approach, her forthrightness, her intelligence and her niggling habit of sniffing his hair in class. Young life is a rigmarole of Juli being oblivious to Bryce’s dislike and Bryce making every possible polite/panicky attempt to ward off the little ball of spirited fire.
But perceptions change when Juli’s beloved Sycamore tree is cut down. Juli had loved the ancient tree with it’s moulting bark, sprawling branches and vertiginous height. Atop it’s highest arms, she had viewed the world in a whole new light. Even the breeze up there smelled different. As she imaginatively put it
“It smelled like ....sunshine. Like sunshine and wild grass and pomegranates and rain!”.When the owner decides to get the tree lopped off, Juli puts up an isolated, valiant fight...but to no avail. As her little slice of heaven vanishes, Juli’s understanding of the world around her and Bryce in particular start shifting.
Dear ol’Bryce has been undergoing a mental growth too. Bludgeoned by some quick lessons in maturity, he slowly but steadily is experiencing a change in his *run-here-comes-madmonkey-Juli* viewpoint. Suddenly he wants to be caught by Juli...but Juli no longer wants to do the running.
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So yes, there’s nothing new in the plotline. Unrequited love which slowly changes seats is a plot that has been tried and tested in the annals of Ya-Lit for a lo-oong time.
But Flipped takes it to a whole new level.
First up, Juli Baker. How can anyone NOT love this brave, intelligent, massive-soul girl? Bryce’s astute grandfather wisely sums it up as
"Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss. But every once in a while you find someone who’s iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare."Juli Baker is a brightly shining star and all her emotions annihilate you with their honesty.
Secondly, Bryce Loski. How could a girl like Juli fall for a seemingly shallow lad like Bryce? But that’s the beauty of it. The beauty of love that has been rammed down our collective sensibilities through that trite little phrase “Love is Blind”. Yes, Juli falls for the dark hair and brilliant blue eyes. It’s only when she sees him, as her dad would say, “In the proper light” that her long-standing infatuation falters. The sweet bit is that Bryce isn’t all that bad. But that’s for you to find out.
Thirdly, the author’s voice. With the *He Said-She Said* format, Wendelin Van Draanen strikes a massive gong in your heart. You remember your first crush, the clammy hands, the hammering heart, the need to have a tongue that spills something deeper than ‘erm...er...aah’. You recall the pain of unrequited love and cringe at embarrassing follies. You reminisce over that inner glow that came from having your affection returned. Flipped makes you proud that in the first flush of youth, you were a *Juli Baker*. If you got your emotions sullied by a cluck-faced Bryce Polski who didn’t know better, you lived and learned and stuck your nose up and got on with life.
And ultimately, Flipped makes you want to be a person like Bryce’s grandmother. I want, with all my heart and soul to be the kind of woman, that if a brave little girl is sitting up on a favourite tree to save it from being timbered off....I would sit right up there with her, by her side....all night.
If you haven’t read this book yet, PLEASE DO! It won't change your life. It won't make you suddenly see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hell, it would probably make a few of you scratch your heads and wonder what all the fuss is about. But...if you want to come away utterly enchanted with a fledgling love story that is innocent, carefully layered within sheets of startling maturity and soft sentimentalism, then Flipped is the book for you.
