Cartoonist Ngozi Ukazu (Check, Please!; Bunt!) combines introspective discussions of identity inspired by The Bluest Eye with Freaky Friday-style body swapping to create Flip, an earnest, contemplative graphic novel about two teens who suddenly switch bodies.
Brown-skinned Mission Springs Prep senior Chi-Chi plucks up the courage to ask her "rich white boy" crush, Flip, to the senior festival. She creates an elaborate promposal and e-mails it to him the day before presentations in their AP English class. Flip mistakes the video for his class presentation and plays it in front of the whole class--"Oh my gosh!" a student yells, "Chi-Chi's asking him out!" Flip's rejection is kind ("I'm sorry Chi-Chi. I just... don't know you that well") but public. Embarrassed Chi-chi runs out of the classroom and silently excoriates herself, wishing Flip Henderson liked her. While outside, she slips, hits her head, and envisions herself taking a doll-sized Chi-Chi apart. She takes a nap later in the day and, when she wakes, she's in Flip Henderson's body--and, of course, Flip is in hers.
Ukazu writes in an author's note that "the harried circumstances of the Black girl's existence has left many of us with the notion, whether conscious or unconscious, that our worth is something to be earned, or is bestowed upon us by others." Like Pecola Breedlove's belief she will be beautiful if she has blue eyes, Chi-Chi believes she will have value if Flip loves her. Ukazu includes a visual cue to the reality of the situation: any time Flip is inhabiting Chi-Chi's body, her eyes are blue. This image clearly identifies body-swap scenes while also highlighting what Chi-Chi actually needs to find her worth.
Thickly lined panels zig-zag across the page or overlap in moments of action and intense emotion. Both Chi-Chi and Flip are forced into self-reflection: Chi-Chi calls out Flip for his unconscious bias around race and sexuality; Flip forces Chi-Chi to recognize the violence in how she speaks to herself. Ukazu develops teens who feel natural and authentic, who are allowed to make mistakes, to learn from them, and to offer themselves space to grow and be emotionally vulnerable. Chi-Chi and Flip being in each other's bodies gives them each the ability to see themselves, an experience that ultimately brings out the best in both kids. Flip is a rare graphic novel that should please readers of literary fiction and comics. --Kharissa Kenner, school media specialist, Churchill School and Center
Shelf Talker: Ngozi Ukazu remarkably brings The Bluest Eye and Freaky Friday together in this humorous yet weighty graphic novel about two teens--a white boy and a Black girl--switching bodies.