Book Review/Book-to-Movie Adaptation: Flipped

Title: Flipped

Author: Wendelin Van Draanen

Genre: Contemporary

Page Count: 212

Publication Date: October 9th, 2001

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Awards: South Carolina Book Award for Junior Book Award (2004), Nevada Young Readers' Award, Virginia Young Readers' Award, South Carolina Children's Book Award, California Young Readers Medal, The Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature Honor (2002)
Source

Flipped

Running Time: 90 minutes

Rating: PG

Release Date: October 22, 2010

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Director: Rob Reiner

Writers: Rob Reiner (screenplay), Andrew Scheinman (screenplay), Wendelin Van Draanen (novel)

Stars: Madeline Carrol, Callan McAuliffe, Rebecca De Mornay
Source

*WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

     Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen is about two complete opposite 8th graders who start to develop feelings for each other. In the 2nd grade, Bryce Loski moves in across the street from Julianne "Juli" Baker. Ever since, Juli is been crazy about Bryce. She always tries to talk him, play with him, and smell his hair. Bryce can't stand Juli and wants her out of his life. Then one day, everything changes when Bryce starts noticing things in Juli that he never did before. This story is very cute and easy to fly through. I devoured it in one sitting. While reading this, I felt like I was watching the movie because it was exactly the same. The two main characters, Bryce and Juli, were fantastic, relatable characters and the overall plot line was addicting. However, there were very few differnces between the book and movie.

     First of all, the characters were fabulous and relatable. Juli and Bryce's personalities both stood out but were also very different. Juli is the outgoing, smart girl who always is the first to raise her hand in class while Bryce is the shy guy who keeps to himself and is still trying to figure himself out. I liked seeing how Bryce changed from only seeing Juli's exterior to seeing her personality and kindheartedness. I think that this really built on Bryce's character and showed that he wasn't awful like his dad. Juli was obsessed with Bryce since the second grade for his dazzling blue eyes but realizes she doesn't really like him after really meeting him and getting to know him. This showed that people may not also be what they seem to be based on their apperances. I really enjoyed reading from each of their perspectives because you got to see how each of them looked at the same situation with a different view of how it happened. For example, Juli thinks that she is being neighborly but Bryce thinks she is trying to constantly trying to weasel her way into his life. I thought it was interesting to see how Bryce and Juli saw each other very differently than how they saw themselves. One of the worst parts of me seeing the movie before reading the book is that I kept imagining the movie actor instead of how the character was described in the book. In the book, Bryce has bright blue eyes and dark hair but in the movie he had blonde hair and dark eyes, so while I was reading I kept seeing this.

Bryce Loski

I am kind of disappointed how in the book Juli is constantly talking about Bryce's perfect blue eyes but in the movie he has brown eyes.





     Secondly, the storyline was addicting. It was really cute to see Bryce and Juli's relationship grow throughout the years. In most stories, you only get to see the character's relationship for a short period of time, but in Flipped you get to see the characters grow over several years. Bryce and Juli had to overcome a few obstacles that came from them being awkward teenagers. I really liked the story because it was relatable. We all go through that stage in our life when you start developing feelings for others that you don't know what to do with. This book was just that. Bryce and Juli go through a series of awkward confrontations and conversations that were just very enjoyable to read. However, I wish there was more of an ending. The book seemed to end kind of abruptly, but I guess that's what happens with a book so short. Also, the movie was almost exactly the same as the book. This was awesome but I wish I had read the book before I watched the movie because I knew exactly what was going to happen next because the book was the exact same as the movie. I guess that's a good thing right?
     All in all, both the Flipped book and movie were excellent! The characters were cute and relatable and the story was addicting. I definetly recommend this book to anyone in the need of a fast, cute read.

Book Review: Extras

Title: Extras

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Dystopian/Sci-Fi

Page Count: 417

Publication Date: October 2nd, 2007

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Source

*NO SPOILERS*

     Extras by Scott Westerfeld is a companion novel to the Uglies trilogy, takes place three years after Tally Youngblood took down the Specials, and  follows a fifteen-year-old named Aya Fuse. Aya lives in a city where everyone is given face ranks instead of being classified as an ugly, pretty, or special. Face ranks are your popularity status. You can build your face rank by kicking, our modern day blogging, an interesting story that the whole world can see. The more people that see your story, the higher your face rank gets. Aya is an extra, meaning her face rank is 451,396 out of a city with a population on 1,000,000 people, and wants desperately to be popular. She tries to kick cool stories but no one ever notices them. While sneaking into a popular party, Aya stumbles upon the Sly Girls, a clique that does crazy stunts but tries their best to stay unnoticed. Aya decides to follow them, along with her hovercam, Moggle, to get shots of them in action so she can kick a never-before-seen story. This story is full of twists and turns and kept me hooked the entire time. I enjoyed the world, the characters, the storyline, and the references to characters from the original trilogy.

     First of all, I loved the world. I was fascinated by the idea of judging people based on how popular they were and how many times their name was mentioned. I think that this is somewhat relatable to our society today because we tend to judge people on their appearance and make assumptions about celebrities based on what we hear through gossip. This is shown in the story through kicks about famous people that aren't true but are popular because they're famous. Also, I, once again, really liked the technologies used in this world. I think that the hovercams were really cool and that they were able to follow you around anywhere you go and find you when it gets lost.

     Secondly, I appreciated the relatable characters. Let's face it; all of us have wanted to be famous or popular at some point in our life and Aya is just like that. Plus, she isn't just sitting around complaining that she wants to be famous like the rest of us, she actually puts forth the effort to become famous and takes risks. I really admired that in her. However, there were some times when she was whining and complaining that she would never be famous which annoyed me. Also, Aya was very persistent to kick a popular story and did anything and everything she had to do to do so. Another character that stood out to me was Frizz. Frizz is the creator of a new clique entitled Radical Honesty. In this clique, everyone tells the truth all of the time and doesn't have the ability to lie. Frizz is very pleased with his invention but his also frustrated by it a lot. The downside of telling the truth all of the time is that you can't keep any secrets which creates difficulties later on in the story. I found this aspect of Frizz's character made him strong and showed his wanting to be a better person.

     Thirdly, the storyline was thrilling and engaging. Throughout the story, Aya was constantly on the look out for something kickable. This led her to take a few risks to get to where she wanted to be. I loved reading about Aya's adventures and how the little things she did created a scenario much bigger than she ever would've imagined. The Sly Girls, a clique that Aya tries to get shots of to kick, do so many insane stunts that I was engaged in the story and couldn't stop reading. One example of these stunts is jumping onto a moving train. I was so worried for not only Aya, but the Sly Girls as well. This part reminded me a bit of the Dauntless from Divergent by Veronica Roth.

     Lastly, I enjoyed seeing the characters from the previous trilogy weave their way into this story. Tally, Shay, and Fausto come back to deal with the Special Circumstance that Aya has created. I really liked seeing Tally again because it was interesting to hear about her through another person's perspective. The people from Aya's city learn about Tally and the other Cutters in their history class and it was weird to see how Aya worshipped them. Also, it was cool to see how far Tally has grown into a strong and confident person. Although Tally still has trouble overcoming the brain damage she received from being a Special, she was still able to function properly without having any random fits of anger. 

     All in all, Extras by Scott Westerfeld was a wonderful read and I would definitely recommend it to everyone who has read the Uglies trilogy. The world was fantastic, the characters were relatable, and the story was full of action.

P.S  To make it easier to follow my blog, I created a Bloglovin' account. This is a fun way to follow blogs that you love. Plus, you don't have to have a blog to be a part of it.