Title: Flipped

Author: Wendelin Van Draanen

Publisher: Scholastic, paperback edition.

Date Published: 2001

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Grade Level: 5-8

Booktalker: Cynthia Norberg

 

 

Background note about the author/selection: This title won the California Young Reader Medal and had a starred review in School Library Journal and Publisherıs Weekly.  The author is well known for her Sammy Keyes mystery series.

 

Booktalk: (When reading the book excerpts let your reading convey the characters feelings.)

 

Iım sure youıve heard the saying  ³there are two sides to every story². In author Wendelin Van Draanenıs realistic fiction novel Flipped, you get to hear them both.  Bryce and Julianna are in eighth grade and they have been neighbors since Bryce moved across the street in second grade.  Hereıs what they have to say about that dayŠ

 

READ/RECITE THE SECTION INDICATED BY THE Š as well as the lines before and at the end of the quote.

 

Bryce: ²All Iıve ever wanted is for Juli Baker to leave me alone.  For her to back off‹you know, just give me some space.  It all started Š But thatıs exactly what she did, taking over and showing off like only Juli Baker can.² (Flipped. p.1)

 

Julianna: ³The first day I met Bryce Loski, I flipped.  Honestly, one look at him and I became a lunatic.  Š.  Those first years!  I thought I would die for wanting to be with him.² (Flipped p.11)

 

These two have had a lot to say about, and to, each other through the years.  But life has taken a strange twist and Bryce and Julianna find that once again their universe has flipped.

 

Bryce: ³ A month ago I wouldnıt have paid any attention to a picture of Juli, but now I found myself staring at it.  Š  Not one bit.  To tell you the truth, it scared the Sheetrock out of me.² (Flipped p. 98)

 

Julianna: ³As I look around, it struck me that we were having dinner with a group of strangers.  Š And based on what I Œd discovered lately, I didnıt care to know any more.² (Flipped p.166)

 

Is there any hope for these two?

 

 

Companion titles around the theme of ² Friends?²

 

The Courage to be Yourself: True Stories by Teens About Cliques, Conflicts, and Overcoming Peer Pressure. (2005). Minneapolis: Free Spirit .

 

Crutcher, C. (1993). Staying Fat for Sarah Brynes. New York: Greenwillow.

 

Grimes, N. (2002). Bronx Masquerade. New York: Dial Books.

 

Howe, J. (2005). Totally Joe. New York: Atheneum Books For Young Readers.

 

Sones, S. (2001). What My Mother Doesnıt Know. New York: Simon & Schuster Books

For Young Readers.

 

Sonnenblick, J. (2005). Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie. New York: Scholastic Press.

 

Soto, G. (2006). Accidental Love. New York: Harcourt.

 

Van Draanen, W. (2003). Swear to Howdy. New York: Knopf.