Bryce's family moves across the street from the Bakers, and Juli insists on helping, ending up holding Bryce's hand.

Bryce gets fifth-grader Shelly Stalls as his girlfriend to signal to Juli that he is not interested in her.

Juli physically attacks Shelly Stalls to separate her from Bryce, and both girls are sent to the principal's office.

Juli hatches all six fertilized eggs for her science fair project and wins first place with her healthy baby chicks.

Juli begins giving free weekly eggs to the Loski family, hoping for a glimpse of Bryce's blue eyes at the door.

Bryce starts secretly throwing Juli's eggs in the trash each week rather than tell her his family does not want them.

Juli refuses to climb down from the sycamore tree when workers arrive to cut it down.

Juli's father rides up in a cherry picker to convince her to descend safely, and the sycamore tree is then demolished.

Juli catches Bryce throwing her eggs away and he responds by insulting her backyard and the appearance of her house.

Juli asks her parents to fix the yard; they reveal the family rents the home and spends heavily on Uncle David's care.

The Bakers arrive at the Loski home for dinner, and Juli immediately tells Bryce she overheard his cruel library comments.

After the dinner party, Mr. Loski accuses Juli's brothers of dealing drugs and strikes Lynetta when she confronts him.

Bryce abandons his lunch date at the basket boy auction, grabs Juli's hand, and tries to kiss her in front of everyone.

Bryce plants a young sycamore sapling in Juli's newly landscaped front yard and leaves without saying a word.

Juli and Bryce exchange waves across the street, and Juli decides she is ready to truly meet him for the first time.

Bryce Loski moves across the street from Juli Baker just before second grade, setting off years of one-sided romantic pursuit that Bryce quietly dreads. Juli's fifth-grade confrontation with Bryce's girlfriend and her science fair triumph with hatched chicks establish her as bold, capable, and deeply invested in Bryce. In eighth grade, Juli's discovery that Bryce secretly discarded her eggs for two years leads to a devastating confrontation that shatters her feelings for him. A clumsy attempt to kiss Juli at the school auction pushes Bryce to find a more meaningful gesture than words can offer. Bryce's decision to plant a sycamore sapling in Juli's front yard and leave without a word proves to be his most honest act. The story closes with Juli finally ready to cross the street and meet the genuinely changed Bryce for the first time.

The headline moments of Juli and Bryce's story, from their first meeting to their renewed connection.

Bryce discovers the mental strategy of diving under as a way to passively wait out conflicts with Lynetta and others.

Juli climbs high into the sycamore tree in fifth grade to rescue Bryce's kite stuck in the upper branches.

Bryce watches in horror as a boa constrictor swallows and crushes eggs inside its body at Skylar Brown's house.

Juli whispers spelling words to Bryce during sixth-grade tests, helping him avoid low scores while feeling guilty about cheating.

Bryce sneaks to Juli's backyard fence with his friend Garrett to check for a rooster instead of asking Juli directly.

Bryce's grandfather Granddad Duncan moves into the Loski home at the start of seventh grade.

Juli bikes to school every day after the tree is cut down to avoid passing the empty lot where it once stood.

Juli's father presents her with a painting of the sycamore tree he created, saying he wants her to always remember her feeling there.

Granddad Duncan begins helping Juli with her front yard project, shocking and frustrating Bryce who had planned to help himself.

Granddad privately confronts Bryce about his egg lies and unkind comments, warning him to seriously rethink his choices.

Bryce walks for hours trying to work up his nerve before finally stopping at the Bakers' to apologize to Juli.

Granddad and Bryce take an evening walk together, and Granddad tells Bryce that people like Juli are very rare.

Juli visits her Uncle David at his residential care facility on his fortieth birthday for the very first time.

Bryce charms Shelly Stalls and Miranda Humes before the auction, hoping one of them will outbid a tall girl named Jenny.

Granddad tells Bryce after the failed kiss at the auction that Juli has not changed — Bryce is the one who changed.

Bryce's habit of mentally diving under conflicts and his visceral horror at watching a snake crush eggs both foreshadow the two years he secretly discards Juli's weekly gifts. Juli's discovery of a soaring, magical perspective high in the sycamore tree gives her a philosophy of beauty she carries into eighth grade, even after the tree is gone. When the sycamore is demolished, Juli avoids the empty lot by biking to school, until her father's painted tribute helps her begin to process the loss. Bryce's grandfather Chet moves into the Loski home and becomes an unexpected force of wisdom, befriending Juli, helping with her yard, and privately holding Bryce accountable for his choices. Bryce struggles to act on his feelings at the basket boy auction after failing to charm his way to a safe lunch date. Granddad's quiet post-auction observation — that Juli has not changed, only Bryce has — gives Bryce the clarity he needs to finally act with maturity.

The behind-the-scenes moments that shaped Juli and Bryce's long, complicated history.

Bryce's sister Lynetta actively brings Juli inside the house to find Bryce, ruining his plan to simply hide and avoid her.

Mrs. Brubeck convinces Juli to take home six fertilized eggs and build an incubator, launching her most consequential science project.

High in the sycamore branches, Juli finally grasps her father's idea that beauty is more than the sum of its parts.

Bryce's father orders him to tell Juli the family does not want her eggs, but Bryce is too scared to do it.

Granddad reads about Juli's tree protest in the newspaper and urges Bryce to read the article without prejudice.

Granddad reveals at the Loski dinner table that the Bakers rent their home and sacrifice financially to care for Mr. Baker's brother.

Mr. Loski calls the Bakers trash and makes cruel remarks about chromosomal abnormalities when he learns about Uncle David.

Granddad reveals to Bryce that he nearly lost oxygen at birth the same way Uncle David did, deeply shocking him.

Feeling guilty in the days before the dinner party, Bryce confesses the full truth about the discarded eggs to his mother.

Garrett spots Juli's newspaper photo in Bryce's backpack, and Bryce tells him about the eggs and mentions Uncle David's disability.

Juli overhears Bryce agreeing with Garrett's mocking joke about her Uncle David during library research time.

Furious and hurt after overhearing Bryce in the library, Juli resolves she is completely and permanently finished with Bryce Loski.

At the dinner party, Bryce sees his father performing false friendliness next to Mr. Baker and loses his remaining admiration for him.

Miranda and Shelly erupt in a physical fight over Bryce at the auction, prompting him to abandon the table entirely.

Juli recognizes the sapling Bryce quietly planted in her yard as a sycamore tree and understands it as his most meaningful apology.

From the very first day, Juli and Bryce misread the same moments in opposite ways, setting up a years-long gap in understanding that drives the entire story. A series of small but consequential choices — Bryce's cowardice with the eggs, Juli's science teacher's challenge — quietly determine the shape of their relationship long before either is aware of it. A chain of startling revelations about Uncle David, Bryce's own near-death at birth, and the Loskis' hidden dysfunction forces both characters to see their families and themselves more honestly. Juli's shattering discovery in the school library, where she hears Bryce laugh along with a cruel joke about her uncle, marks the exact moment her feelings for him die. Bryce's humiliation at the auction and his clear-eyed recognition of his father's pettiness push him past verbal apologies toward a genuinely selfless act. The moment Juli recognizes the sycamore sapling in her yard closes the emotional arc of the novel, signaling forgiveness and the promise of a real beginning between two people who finally see each other clearly.

The key discoveries and emotional shifts that flip the relationship between Juli and Bryce.

Wendelin Van Draanen

Novel

Fiction

Guide