Flipped · Garden Heights

Part 1

for Flipped · Part 1 · Chapters 1–2

8 Parts40 min

What Happens in Part 1

In Chapter 1, Bryce Loski tells how his family moved in the summer before second grade, and how Juli Baker crossed the street uninvited to help unload the truck. He backs away, their hands end up locked together, and he remembers the moment as suffocating and embarrassing until Patsy Loski calls him inside. For six years Juli keeps coming: asking his parents whether he can play, showing off soccer tricks. In fifth grade he goes with Shelly Stalls mostly because Juli cannot stand her; the girls fight and Shelly ends it. By sixth grade Juli sits behind him, sniffs his hair, and helps him cheat on spelling tests. Chapter 2 replays the same six years from Juli’s side. The locked hands were transcendent to her, and she is sure a kiss was seconds away when his mother interrupted. Jealousy over Shelly ends in a headlock, the breakup reads as proof she was right, and the spelling help was so Bryce could eat lunch with her instead of attending remedial sessions.

What We Will Learn

Section	What you will practice
Vocabulary	Words for remembering and telling: perspective, version, recall, mortified, transcendent…
Literary Elements	Two first-person narrators, a retrospective telling, and the irony between their accounts
Cross-Curricular	Eyewitness memory — why two honest people describe one moment differently

Chapter Summary

Ch.	What happens
1	Diving Under — Bryce narrates. The summer before second grade the Loskis move in across the street, and Juli Baker walks over uninvited to help unload the moving truck. Bryce backs away from her, their hands end up locked together, and he remembers the moment as suffocating and embarrassing until his mother calls him inside. For the next six years Juli keeps turning up — asking his parents whether he can come out, showing off soccer tricks in the street. In fifth grade he starts going with Shelly Stalls mostly because Juli cannot stand her; the two girls fight and Shelly ends it. By sixth grade Juli sits behind him, sniffs his hair, and slides him spelling answers.
2	Flipped — Juli narrates the same six years from the other side. To her the locked hands were not a trap but the best moment of her young life, and she is certain Bryce would have kissed her if his mother had not called him in. Everything after that is read through it: the visits, the soccer tricks, the waiting. When Bryce starts going with Shelly Stalls, jealousy wins and Juli puts Shelly in a headlock in the schoolyard; when the couple breaks up, she takes it as proof she had been right all along. She feeds Bryce spelling answers so he can stay at lunch with her instead of a remedial group.

Ch.

What happens

1

Diving Under — Bryce narrates. The summer before second grade the Loskis move in across the street, and Juli Baker walks over uninvited to help unload the moving truck. Bryce backs away from her, their hands end up locked together, and he remembers the moment as suffocating and embarrassing until his mother calls him inside. For the next six years Juli keeps turning up — asking his parents whether he can come out, showing off soccer tricks in the street. In fifth grade he starts going with Shelly Stalls mostly because Juli cannot stand her; the two girls fight and Shelly ends it. By sixth grade Juli sits behind him, sniffs his hair, and slides him spelling answers.

2

Flipped — Juli narrates the same six years from the other side. To her the locked hands were not a trap but the best moment of her young life, and she is certain Bryce would have kissed her if his mother had not called him in. Everything after that is read through it: the visits, the soccer tricks, the waiting. When Bryce starts going with Shelly Stalls, jealousy wins and Juli puts Shelly in a headlock in the schoolyard; when the couple breaks up, she takes it as proof she had been right all along. She feeds Bryce spelling answers so he can stay at lunch with her instead of a remedial group.

Part 1

Vocabulary

Study 10 key words from Chapters 1–2, then answer each question.

📚Knowledge Bank · The Words We Use for Remembering

Psychology & Language · Memory WordsPart 1 hands you one childhood told twice, so the words that matter most are the words people use for remembering. An account is one person’s telling of an event. A version is that same telling placed beside somebody else’s, because the moment you call something a version you have admitted another one exists. Perspective is the spot a person was standing in when the event happened — physically, but also emotionally, since a child hoping for attention and a child dreading it are not standing in the same place at all. What each of them later brings back is recall, and recall is never the whole afternoon. Watch the two narrators use these ideas without ever naming them: Bryce reports a hand he could not shake off, and Juli reports a hand she was handed. Neither one is inventing. Each is honest, which is exactly why a first-person chapter should be read as evidence rather than as fact.

reluctantadj.Ch.1

Unwilling and slow to do something

“He was reluctant to open the door with the neighbors watching.”

mortifiedadj.Ch.1

Filled with deep embarrassment or shame

“Nothing is worse at seven than being mortified in your own driveway.”

persistentadj.Ch.1

Continuing steadily even when discouraged

“Six years of doorbells is a fairly persistent way to say hello.”

evadev.Ch.1

To get away from someone or something by being quick or clever

“He learned four different routes home just to evade one neighbor.”

remedialadj.Ch.1

Meant to help a student catch up in a skill

“The remedial spelling group met while everyone else ate lunch.”

transcendentadj.Ch.2

Going far beyond ordinary experience; deeply moving

“She called that ordinary afternoon transcendent for the rest of her life.”

infatuationn.Ch.2

A strong, sudden attraction that may not last

“Her infatuation began in a driveway and outlasted every classmate’s.”

impulsiveadj.Ch.2

Acting suddenly without stopping to think first

“One impulsive headlock in the schoolyard undid a month of pretending.”

contradictv.Ch.2

To say the opposite of what someone else has said

“Her account does not exactly contradict his; it simply refuses to match.”

versionn.Ch.2

One person’s account of an event as that person remembers it

“Every version of the moving-day story leaves out something the other keeps.”

ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.

1Someone who is unwilling and slow to act is ___.Ch.1

2To get away from someone by being quick or clever is to ___.Ch.1

3‘Mortified’ means filled with deep embarrassment.Ch.1

4An experience that goes far beyond the ordinary is ___.Ch.2

5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.1–2

Word choices:reluctantremedialversionimpulsive- some words will not be used

The spelling group met while everyone else ate lunch.

Every of the moving-day story leaves out something the other keeps.

6A ‘persistent’ person gives up as soon as the first attempt fails.Ch.1

7Acting suddenly without stopping to think is being ___.Ch.2

8To ‘contradict’ someone is to say the opposite of what that person said.Ch.2

9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.1–2

Word choices:mortifiedtranscendentinfatuationevade- some words will not be used

He learned four different routes home just to one neighbor.

She called that ordinary afternoon for the rest of her life.

10A class meant to help a student catch up in a skill is ___.Ch.1

Part 2

Comprehension

Show you understood what happens in Chapters 1–2.

📋Knowledge Bank · Memory Rebuilds; It Does Not Replay

Psychology · How Remembering WorksIt is tempting to picture memory as a recording that plays back whenever you press the button. Research says otherwise. The brain keeps fragments — a sound, a smell, a flash of feeling — and then builds the scene around them again each time it is asked, a process psychologists call reconstruction. The gaps get filled with whatever seems reasonable now, so a memory can shift a little every time it is used, and the person doing the remembering notices nothing at all. Mood, sleep, and later conversations can each nudge the rebuilt copy a little further from the original. What survives best is the gist, the general shape of what happened; the exact details fade first and are the parts most likely to be quietly reinvented. That is how two children can leave one driveway with two honest, incompatible stories. Neither is lying. Each kept the fragments that mattered to that particular child and rebuilt the whole afternoon around a different center.

1Why does Juli come across the street on the day the Loskis move in?Ch.1

2How does Bryce remember the moment their hands lock together?Ch.1

3Why does Bryce start going with Shelly Stalls in fifth grade?Ch.1

4What does Juli do in sixth grade that unsettles Bryce?Ch.1

5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 1–2. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.1–2

For years Juli keeps turning up, asking his parents and showing off soccer tricks.
In fifth grade Bryce goes with Shelly Stalls, and the two girls fight at school.
Their hands end up locked together until Bryce’s mother calls him inside.
The Loski moving truck arrives and Juli crosses the street uninvited to help.
By sixth grade Juli sits behind Bryce and slides him answers on spelling tests.

6In Chapter 2, Juli remembers the hand-holding as an ordinary moment she soon forgot.Ch.2

7Why does Juli help Bryce on his spelling tests?Ch.2

8Shelly Stalls, not Bryce, ends the fifth-grade relationship.Ch.1

9How does Juli read the end of Bryce’s relationship with Shelly?Ch.2

10Chapters 1 and 2 cover two completely different stretches of time.Ch.1–2

Part 3

Literary Elements

Understanding HOW and WHY Wendelin Van Draanen tells the story across Chapters 1–2.

🧠Knowledge Bank · Two Narrators, One Afternoon

Literary Craft · Alternating First PersonMost novels hand the reader one pair of eyes. Van Draanen hands over two and lets them disagree. Odd chapters belong to Bryce and even chapters to Juli, and each pair covers the same stretch of time, so Chapter 2 does not push the story forward — it tells the story again. That design turns the reader into a judge, and neither chapter can be skipped, because the whole meaning of Part 1 lives in the distance between them. Because both speak in the first person, neither can be checked against a neutral narrator who might declare a winner. Both are also looking back from a later age, which makes the telling retrospective: an older Bryce can admit he panicked, and an older Juli can admit she was jealous. The gap between their accounts produces irony, since we understand that driveway better than either child standing in it. The structure makes an argument: knowing another person begins with hearing one day told twice.

Alternating first-person narrators

Odd chapters belong to Bryce and even chapters to Juli. Each says I, each sounds convincing, and there is no third voice to settle the argument.

Retrospective narration

Both narrators are looking back from a later age, so each can admit things the child could not — that he panicked, that she was jealous.

Irony

Because we get both accounts, we understand the driveway better than either child in it — the reader knows what neither narrator can see.

1Van Draanen tells Chapters 1 and 2 by ___.Ch.1–2

2Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.1–2

Word choices:narratorretrospectiveironysetting- some words will not be used

The voice telling a chapter is its .

Telling a story by looking back at it years later is .

3Because both chapters cover the same six years, readers can ___.Ch.1–2

4Chapter 2 introduces a new set of events that Chapter 1 never mentioned.Ch.1–2

5Because Bryce narrates first, the book treats his account as the correct one.Ch.1–2

6The chapter titles ‘Diving Under’ and ‘Flipped’ mainly signal ___.Ch.1–2

7Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.1–2

Word choices:ironyflashbackrhymedialogue- some words will not be used

Readers understanding more than the characters do is .

8Both narrators use the first-person ‘I’ to tell their own chapters.Ch.1–2

9Letting each narrator look back from a later age allows the author to ___.Ch.1–2

10Chapters 1 and 2 mainly work to ___.Ch.1–2

Part 4

Think Deeper

Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.

💡Knowledge Bank · Certainty Is Not Proof

Psychology & Ethics · Judging Two AccountsWhen two people tell one story differently, the fastest and worst move is to decide that somebody must be lying. Honest witnesses disagree constantly, and the reason is built into how remembering works. Two people can stand a yard apart and still walk away storing two different afternoons. It is just as unwise to believe whoever sounds surest. Studies of eyewitness testimony keep finding that confidence and accuracy come apart, and that a witness grows more certain after being praised, questioned repeatedly, or told what somebody else recalls. Fair judgment asks better questions instead: which parts of the two accounts already agree, what each person was actually positioned to notice, and whether any independent detail can corroborate the story. Used on Part 1, that method is generous to both children. Bryce is not a liar for feeling trapped, and Juli is not a fool for feeling chosen. Reading them side by side is how a reader gets nearer the truth.

Think back over these two chapters. A moving truck pulls into a driveway on an ordinary summer afternoon, and a girl crosses the street without being asked. Two seven-year-olds end up with their hands locked together for a few seconds. One of them spends six years trying to get away: taking different routes home, hiding behind a girlfriend he does not much like, dreading the seat behind him in class. The other spends those same six years certain that something wonderful had begun and was interrupted, reading every soccer trick and every whispered spelling answer as another step toward it. Nothing in either account is invented. The chapters simply set two truthful stories beside each other and let the reader notice how little they overlap.

Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.

1Claim: “Chapters 1 and 2 are built so that neither narrator can be dismissed as a liar.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence

2Bryce’s version, or Juli’s version? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two

◄ Bryce’s versionJuli’s version ►

3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect

The Loski moving truck pulls up across the street→

Bryce’s mother calls him inside from the driveway→

Juli makes it plain that she cannot stand Shelly Stalls→

Bryce is sent to a remedial spelling group at lunch→

4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument

Van Draanen gives Chapter 2 to Juli instead of moving the story forward because , which shows that .

Part 5

Standardized Test

Reading passage · Two People, One Memory · Words in Context & Central Ideas · SAT & TOEFL-style practice

🎯 What this section practices

You already have these skills from the sections above — here they appear in the exact question types the SAT and TOEFL use. Read the passage (the highlighted words are tested below), then answer. Tap an answer to select it, then tap it again to confirm — you can change your choice until you confirm.

SATCentral Ideas — the main point of the passage as a whole
TOEFLFactual Information — a fact stated directly in the passage
SATWords in Context — what a word means the way this passage uses it
TOEFLVocabulary — the meaning of a tested word as this passage uses it
SATInference — a conclusion the passage supports without ever stating it outright

How Memory Rebuilds the Past

Bryce and Juli describe the same six years and disagree about nearly every moment in them. Psychologists would not find that surprising. Memory does not work like a camera that stores a scene and plays it back on demand; it works more like a builder working from salvage. What the brain keeps is a rough set of impressions, and the process of laying those impressions down is called encoding.

Encoding is selective from the first second. Attention is limited, so the brain saves whatever it judges important and lets the rest go, and what it judges important depends on what a person already expects and feels. A child dreading embarrassment will store the watching crowd; a child hoping for affection will store the hand. Later, when the memory is needed, the brain has to reconstruct the scene from those fragments, filling the gaps with whatever seems reasonable now. Each act of recall rebuilds the memory slightly, so today’s version can drift from yesterday’s without anyone noticing.

This causes trouble in classrooms and courtrooms alike. People assume a witness who sounds certain must be accurate, yet studies of eyewitness testimony show that confidence and accuracy come apart, especially after a witness has been praised, questioned repeatedly, or told what somebody else remembers. The safer test is to corroborate an account — to look for independent evidence that fits it. Two people who remember one afternoon differently are not necessarily lying; they may simply have built different rooms from the same bricks. Setting their accounts side by side is usually the closest anyone gets to what happened.

Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.

1What is the main idea of the passage?SAT · Central Ideas

2According to the passage, encoding is the process of ___.TOEFL · Factual Information

3In the passage, encoding most nearly means ___.SAT · Words in Context

4In the passage, to reconstruct a scene is to ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary

5In the passage, to corroborate an account is to ___.SAT · Words in Context

6According to the passage, what a person encodes depends on ___.TOEFL · Factual Information

7The passage says a witness may grow more certain after ___.TOEFL · Factual Information

8The passage suggests that a witness who sounds completely certain ___.SAT · Inference

9What does the author mean by different rooms built from the same bricks?SAT · Inference

10According to the passage, a memory can change because ___.TOEFL · Factual Information

Part 6 · Optional

Creative Writing

A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.

About This Section

This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!

Writing Task — Part 1 “The Other Side of the Driveway”

Bryce and Juli remember one afternoon so differently that it hardly sounds like the same event. Think of a time you and somebody else — a sibling, a friend, a classmate — remembered one moment in two different ways. Tell it once from your side, then re-tell that same moment the way the other person would tell it. 6–10 sentences. End by naming one detail that only one of you noticed.

You can start with: “We both walked away from that afternoon certain we knew what had happened…”

0 / 40 words minimum

🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)

No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.

Part 1 Complete!

You finished Chapters 1–2 of Flipped.

Here are your auto-graded results:

-

points out of 100

🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)

Teach it to someone

The best last step is to teach it. In your own words, explain what happened — retell a favorite scene, teach a character’s big choice, or sum up the main idea for a parent, friend, or classmate. When you can teach it clearly, you truly own it.

Move on to Part 2 →

Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Wendelin Van Draanen. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Wendelin Van Draanen’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.