Flipped · Garden Heights

Part 3

for Flipped · Part 3 · Chapters 5–6

8 Parts40 min

What Happens in Part 3

In Chapter 5, Bryce Loski is sent to fetch his sister Lynetta and is shown the Baker brothers’ boa constrictor swallowing raw eggs — the image he keeps coming back to. Soon afterwards Juli brings a free carton from her own hens across the street. Rick Loski refuses them, pointing at the loose chickens and the state of the Baker yard and warning about salmonella — a bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Unwilling to repeat any of that, Bryce takes every carton to the trash and tells Juli the family is enjoying them — for roughly two years, until she is standing there when it happens. Chapter 6 replays the same stretch from Juli’s side: borrowing the incubator — a warm box that holds eggs at a steady temperature — turning the eggs, candling them nightly by holding a bright light behind each shell, hatching chicks she names alphabetically, and discovering that the bird called Clyde is a hen and becomes Clydette. The surplus goes to the neighbors; Mrs. Stueby insists on paying while the Loskis pay nothing. Learning where the cartons went humiliates her, and the reason given — her own yard — hurts more than the waste.

What We Will Learn

Section	What you will practice
Vocabulary	Words for eggs and for hiding things: incubate, sanitary, surplus, deceive, gratitude…
Literary Elements	Dramatic irony, a secret that runs for two years, and a gift refused in private
Cross-Curricular	Food science — how a hen makes an egg and what actually makes one safe to eat

Chapter Summary

Ch.	What happens
5	Brawk, Brawk, Brawk! — Bryce narrates. Sent to fetch his sister Lynetta from the garage where Skyler Brown’s band practices, Bryce is shown the Baker brothers’ boa constrictor being fed raw eggs, which it cracks by winding itself around a piano leg. The sight stays with him. Not long after, Juli is at his door with a carton from her own hens. Rick Loski decides nothing is really free, points at the loose chickens and the state of the Baker yard, and refuses the eggs over the risk of salmonella — a bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Rather than repeat any of that to Juli, Bryce takes each carton straight to the trash and tells her the family is enjoying them. He keeps that up for about two years — until she is standing there when the eggs go in the garbage.
6	The Eggs — Juli narrates the same stretch from her side. She borrows an incubator — a warm box that holds eggs at a steady temperature — turns the eggs by hand, candles them nightly to watch the embryos — the chicks at their earliest stage — grow, and hatches chicks she names in alphabetical order; the one called Clyde turns out to be a hen and becomes Clydette. With no rooster in the flock the hens simply lay, and soon there are far more eggs than the Bakers can eat. Juli takes the surplus to the neighbors — Mrs. Stueby insists on paying, and the Loskis get theirs free every week for two years. Learning where those cartons actually went humiliates her, and the reason given hurts worse than the waste.

Ch.

What happens

5

Brawk, Brawk, Brawk! — Bryce narrates. Sent to fetch his sister Lynetta from the garage where Skyler Brown’s band practices, Bryce is shown the Baker brothers’ boa constrictor being fed raw eggs, which it cracks by winding itself around a piano leg. The sight stays with him. Not long after, Juli is at his door with a carton from her own hens. Rick Loski decides nothing is really free, points at the loose chickens and the state of the Baker yard, and refuses the eggs over the risk of salmonella — a bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Rather than repeat any of that to Juli, Bryce takes each carton straight to the trash and tells her the family is enjoying them. He keeps that up for about two years — until she is standing there when the eggs go in the garbage.

6

The Eggs — Juli narrates the same stretch from her side. She borrows an incubator — a warm box that holds eggs at a steady temperature — turns the eggs by hand, candles them nightly to watch the embryos — the chicks at their earliest stage — grow, and hatches chicks she names in alphabetical order; the one called Clyde turns out to be a hen and becomes Clydette. With no rooster in the flock the hens simply lay, and soon there are far more eggs than the Bakers can eat. Juli takes the surplus to the neighbors — Mrs. Stueby insists on paying, and the Loskis get theirs free every week for two years. Learning where those cartons actually went humiliates her, and the reason given hurts worse than the waste.

Part 1

Vocabulary

Study 10 key words from Chapters 5–6, then answer each question.

📚Knowledge Bank · The Words on an Egg Carton

Science & Language · Poultry WordsPart 3 runs on words most readers half know. To incubate is to hold eggs at about 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) so the young inside can develop; the machine that does it also turns the eggs, because a hen would. An egg is fertilized only if a rooster was involved, and that word decides everything: fertilized eggs kept warm become chicks, while unfertilized ones stay breakfast no matter how long you wait. Juli watches development happen by candling, holding a bright light behind the shell to look for the dark spot and the spreading threads of blood vessels, a technique poultry keepers have relied on for well over a century. When six hens outproduce one family, the extra is a surplus, a plain economic word for the exact problem that starts the trouble. Notice that the Loskis reach instead for words about risk, arguing about whether a backyard flock is sanitary. Two households look at one carton and reach for two entirely different vocabularies.

incubatev.Ch.6

To keep eggs warm so that the young inside can develop

“A borrowed machine can incubate a dozen eggs for three weeks straight.”

sanitaryadj.Ch.5

Clean enough to protect health

“He decided the henhouse was not sanitary without ever walking into it.”

deceivev.Ch.5

To make someone believe something that is not true

“It is easy to deceive a neighbor who wants very much to be thanked.”

disposev.Ch.5

To get rid of something

“Every Saturday he found a quiet way to dispose of a full carton.”

surplusn.Ch.6

An amount left over after all the needs are met

“Six hens produce a surplus long before anyone plans what to do with it.”

fertilizedadj.Ch.6

Joined with a male cell so that it can develop into young

“Only a fertilized egg will ever turn into a chick under a warm lamp.”

candlingn.Ch.6

Shining a light through an egg to see what is developing inside

“Careful candling shows a dark shape and a web of threads by the fifth day.”

humiliatev.Ch.6

To make someone feel ashamed and foolish in front of others

“Nothing can humiliate a person faster than a gift found in the trash.”

gratituden.Ch.6

The feeling of being thankful for something received

“She had been collecting borrowed gratitude for two years without knowing it.”

earnestadj.Ch.6

Serious and sincere in what one says or does

“Her earnest weekly delivery was the whole reason the lie kept working.”

ⓘ 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.

1To keep eggs warm so the young inside can develop is to ___ them.Ch.5

2An amount left over after every need is met is a ___.Ch.5

3‘Sanitary’ means clean enough to protect health.Ch.5

4Shining a light through an egg to see what is inside is called ___.Ch.6

5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.5–6

Word choices:deceivedisposegratitudeearnest- some words will not be used

Every Saturday he found a quiet way to of a full carton.

She had been collecting borrowed for two years without knowing it.

6An egg must be ‘fertilized’ before a hen is able to lay it.Ch.6

7To make somebody feel ashamed and foolish in front of others is to ___.Ch.6

8To ‘deceive’ someone is to make that person believe something untrue.Ch.5

9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.5–6

Word choices:incubatesanitarycandlingsurplus- some words will not be used

He decided the henhouse was not without ever walking into it.

A borrowed machine can a dozen eggs for three weeks straight.

10Someone who is serious and sincere in what he or she does is ___.Ch.6

Part 2

Comprehension

Show you understood what happens in Chapters 5–6.

📋Knowledge Bank · How a Hen Makes an Egg

Biology · The Laying CycleA hen needs no rooster to lay; she needs a working system and roughly twenty-five hours. The cycle starts in her ovary, where a yolk that has been building for about ten days is released into a long tube called the oviduct. As the yolk travels down that tube, thick clear protein is wrapped around it in layers, and two twisted cords form that hold the yolk centered. Membranes go on next, and then the egg spends close to twenty hours in the shell gland, where calcium is deposited grain by grain into a shell. Because the whole trip takes longer than a day, a hen lays a little later each morning and eventually skips one. Light, age, feed, and stress all move the schedule, which is why backyard flocks slow down every autumn. Understanding this makes Juli’s project ordinary science rather than a stunt: she did not make eggs happen, she watched a very old biological clock.

1What is Juli’s science fair project?Ch.6

2Why does Rick Loski refuse the eggs Juli brings over?Ch.5

3What does Bryce do with the cartons of eggs?Ch.5

4Why does Juli give the Loskis eggs for free?Ch.6

5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 5–6. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.5–6

Juli learns that the eggs have been going straight into the Loskis’ trash.
Juli borrows an incubator and candles the eggs while the embryos develop.
Juli carries a free carton across the street nearly every week for two years.
The hens begin laying more eggs than the Baker family can possibly eat.
The chicks hatch for the science fair, and the flock turns out to be all hens.

6Juli’s flock includes a rooster, which is why the hens are able to lay eggs.Ch.6

7What does Bryce tell Juli each time she hands over a carton?Ch.5

8Mrs. Stueby insists on paying Juli for the eggs she delivers.Ch.6

9What hurts Juli most once she learns the truth?Ch.6

10Chapters 5 and 6 cover two different stretches of time in the neighborhood.Ch.5–6

Part 3

Literary Elements

Understanding HOW and WHY Wendelin Van Draanen tells the story across Chapters 5–6.

🧠Knowledge Bank · A Secret the Reader Watches Grow

Literary Craft · Dramatic IronyVan Draanen builds Part 3 on a gap in knowledge. Chapter 5 tells the reader exactly where the cartons go, and Chapter 6 then shows two years of deliveries by a girl who has no idea. That gap is irony of the dramatic kind: the audience holds information a character lacks, and every ordinary line starts working twice. A thank-you at the door reads as courtesy to Juli and as evidence to us. The technique also manufactures suspense without a single chase, because the only real question is when the secret breaks, not whether. Ordering the chapters this way matters enormously. Had Juli narrated first, the discovery would land as a surprise; told in this order it lands as something the reader has been dreading for pages. Notice too that eggs work as a motif, returning in every scene to measure what one family privately thinks of the other. The result is a chapter pair that hurts by design.

Dramatic irony

The reader knows where every carton is going long before Juli does, so each cheerful delivery reads as painful rather than sweet.

Motif

Eggs keep returning — hatched, counted, given, refused, thrown away — and each appearance measures what one family thinks of the other.

Situational irony

The gift meant to say thank you becomes the thing that exposes how the Loskis have been judging the Bakers all along.

1Readers know the eggs are being thrown away long before Juli does. This is ___.Ch.5–6

2Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.5–6

Word choices:ironymotifsettingrhyme- some words will not be used

An image that keeps returning with meaning is a .

A gap between what the reader knows and what a character knows is .

3Putting Bryce’s chapter before Juli’s mainly lets the author ___.Ch.5–6

4Eggs function as a motif because they return again and again carrying meaning.Ch.5–6

5Because Bryce keeps the truth from Juli, the novel treats him as a straightforward villain.Ch.5–6

6The title ‘Brawk, Brawk, Brawk!’ mainly signals ___.Ch.5

7Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.5–6

Word choices:symbolstanzameterpun- some words will not be used

An object that stands for a larger idea is a .

8A gift meant as thanks turns into proof of contempt. This is best called ___.Ch.5–6

9Chapter 6 introduces a set of events that Chapter 5 never mentions at all.Ch.5–6

10Chapters 5 and 6 together mainly work to ___.Ch.5–6

Part 4

Think Deeper

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

💡Knowledge Bank · Is That Egg Safe?

Food Science & Ethics · Risk and JudgmentRick Loski names a real hazard. Salmonella — a bacteria that can cause food poisoning — can be carried on a shell or, rarely, sealed inside an egg before it is laid, and food scientists take it seriously. The honest answer, though, is about handling rather than address. American producers wash eggs, which removes dirt and also strips the natural coating, so washed eggs then require refrigeration. Much of Europe does neither and stores eggs on the shelf, and both systems are considered safe. Cooking until white and yolk are firm removes almost all remaining risk, and the Department of Agriculture repeats that advice every single year. Nothing in that science singles out a backyard flock, and nobody in Chapter 5 tests anything, asks anything, or looks at the henhouse. That is the difference between a hazard and a pretext: a hazard can be measured, while a pretext only has to sound reasonable to the person already convinced. Real caution checks; borrowed caution merely concludes.

Think back over these two chapters. A girl borrows an incubator, turns a dozen eggs by hand for three weeks, and holds a light behind each shell at night to watch something take shape. The chicks hatch. The birds grow, the eggs start coming, and because there are more than one family can eat she carries the extras around the neighborhood. One neighbor pays her. The house across the street takes its carton free, every week, for about two years, and thanks her at the door each time. Behind that door a father has already decided what kind of people keep chickens in a yard like that, and a boy who does not agree and does not argue walks each carton to the garbage. Nobody tests anything. Nobody asks anything. Then one afternoon the timing is wrong, and two years of politeness end in a few seconds.

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

1Claim: “Chapters 5 and 6 show that the Loskis’ objection to the eggs was never really about food safety.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence

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

◄ Bryce’s sideJuli’s side ►

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

Juli borrows an incubator for her science fair project→

The hens lay more eggs than the Bakers can use→

Rick Loski decides the Baker yard makes the eggs unsafe→

Juli sees where her eggs have actually been going→

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

Van Draanen spends two chapters on eggs rather than on something more dramatic because , which shows that .

Part 5

Standardized Test

Reading passage · Where an Egg Comes From · 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 a Hen's Egg Forms

A hen does not need a rooster in order to lay; she needs a working system and about twenty-five hours. The cycle begins in her ovary, where a yolk that has been building for roughly ten days is released into a long tube. As it travels, thick clear protein is wrapped around it in layers, and that protein is the albumen. Membranes go on next, and the egg then spends close to twenty hours in the shell gland, where calcium is laid down grain by grain.

The finished shell is not a sealed box. It is drilled through with thousands of pores too small to see, which let a developing chick trade gases with the air and which can also let bacteria in. A hen answers that problem herself, coating each egg moments before laying it with a damp film that dries into a thin protective layer called the cuticle. Fertilized eggs held warm for about twenty-one days become chicks, while unfertilized ones simply stay eggs.

What happens after collection decides how safe an egg is. Washing removes dirt but also strips that natural coating, so American producers wash and then refrigerate, while many European countries do neither and leave the coating in place. Both systems work; mixing them does not, because a washed egg left in a warm kitchen is perishable in a way an unwashed one is not. Cartons carry a pack date and a sell-by date, and cold storage slows the loss of quality that starts the day the egg is laid. Thorough cooking handles what refrigeration cannot, which is the small chance that bacteria were inside from the beginning.

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, how long does the egg spend in the shell gland?TOEFL · Factual Information

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

4In the passage, the cuticle is ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary

5In the passage, something perishable is ___.SAT · Words in Context

6According to the passage, washing an egg also ___.TOEFL · Factual Information

7The passage says many European countries ___.TOEFL · Factual Information

8The passage suggests that a shell alone ___.SAT · Inference

9It can be inferred that an unwashed egg on a shelf ___.SAT · Inference

10According to the passage, thorough cooking matters 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 3 “The Carton at the Door”

For two years Juli hands over eggs and Bryce throws them away rather than repeat what his father said. Write about a time somebody kept an uncomfortable truth from you — or a time you kept one from somebody else — because saying it out loud felt worse than hiding it. 6–10 sentences. End by naming what finally happened when the truth came out, and whether the silence had actually helped anyone.

You can start with: “It would have taken one sentence to tell the truth, and I did not say it…”

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 3 Complete!

You finished Chapters 5–6 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 4 →

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.