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Rick Loski
Robert Baker is Juli, Matt, and Mike’s father and Trina’s husband. He works as a mason and often takes on overtime hours to help his family make ends meet. But in his rare free time, he enjoys painting landscapes in his yard as Juli sits with him and silently watches on. These moments in the yard together bond them throughout the years, and through painting, Robert teaches Juli important lessons about how appearances can be deceiving. After her beloved sycamore tree is cut down, he paints it for her, reassuring her that its spirit lives on in this way. Though the Bakers rent their home from the negligent Mr. Finnegan and often face judgment for their unkempt yard—mostly from people like Rick Loski, who calls them “trash”—Robert models dignity, sacrifice, and empathy for his children. He’s also dedicated to his brother David, who was born with an intellectual disability, and he and Trina spend most of their resources ensuring he’s properly cared for. The Baker family unit is incredibly close, and in many ways, Robert functions as a foil to the kind of husband and father that Rick is.
Robert Baker Quotes in Flipped
The Flipped quotes below are all either spoken by Robert Baker or refer to Robert Baker. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3: Buddy, Beware! Quotes
Mom and Juli’s mom do talk some. I think my mom feels sorry for Mrs. Baker—she says she married a dreamer, and because of that, one of the two of them will always be unhappy.
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Chapter 4: The Sycamore Tree Quotes
“A painting is more than the sum of its parts,” he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you’ve got magic.
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Then a few months ago I found myself talking to the tree. An entire conversation, just me and a tree. And on the climb down I felt like crying. Why didn’t I have someone real to talk to? Why didn’t I have a best friend like everyone else seemed to?
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And way up in the tree was a tiny girl looking off into the distance, her cheeks flushed with wind. With joy. With magic.
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Chapter 8: The Yard Quotes
I felt sorry for my father. I felt sorry for my mother. But most of all I felt lucky for me that they were mine.
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Chapter 10: The Visit Quotes
“Well, I think you know my heart’s been in the right place, but if you line it up objectively, a man like, say, Mr. Loski adds up to a much better husband and father than a man like me does. He’s around more, he provides more, and he’s probably a lot more fun.”
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Chapter 11: The Serious Willies Quotes
Standing next to Mr. Baker, he looked small. Physically small. And compared to the cut of Mr. Baker’s jaw, my dad’s face looked kind of weaselly.
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Robert Baker Character Timeline in Flipped
The timeline below shows where the character Robert Baker appears in Flipped. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3: Buddy, Beware!
...and vines. Unlike Bryce’s dad Rick, who takes pride in his home’s appearance, Juli’s father Robert isn’t much of a landscaper. In fact, he’s a landscape painter.
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Chapter 4: The Sycamore Tree
...including her feelings about Bryce. After gushing once about Bryce’s blue eyes and flushed cheeks, Robert had told her, “proper lighting is everything,” which left her wondering what he really meant....
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...as often as she could, for years. Just a few months ago, she finally told Robert how the tree made her understand what he said about a painting being more than...
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...arrived, ordering her down. She remained in the branches until a crowd gathered below, and Robert had to ride up in a lift to bring her down. For the next two...
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Chapter 6: The Eggs
When Juli was six, Robert brought home a stray dog he’d found injured on the side of the road. After...
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As it happens, Robert had once raised a duck from an egg for his own science fair, so he...
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...fair, Mrs. Brubeck told Juli she could keep the chicks, which horrified Trina. But when Robert pointed out the birds would eat the snails and pests in their garden, she reluctantly...
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Chapter 8: The Yard
...afraid to eat her eggs because of the condition of their yard. Embarrassed, Trina begs Robert to do something about it. The conversation shifts to Uncle David, Juli’s intellectually disabled uncle...
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Chapter 10: The Visit
...to visit Uncle David, whose 40th birthday is today. She insists on joining him, and Robert hesitantly agrees. At the Greenhaven facility, Juli meets her uncle for the very first time....
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...David drops his cone and has a meltdown, crying and screaming on the floor. While Robert tries to calm him, Juli quickly retrieves a replacement cone, which solves the problem. After...
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Chapter 12: The Dinner
...father’s face. Even if the music is loud noise to him and the other adults, Robert is proud because his sons worked hard and achieved this all on their own. After...
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...Matt and Mike joke about how Mr. Loski was “sniffing” them out all night, but Robert insists they handled themselves well, the pride visible on his face. Juli realizes her father...
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Chapter 14: The Basket Boys
...afternoon, she spots him in her yard, digging up a patch of her carefully-planted grass. Robert explains he gave Bryce permission, and that he’s doing something important. When Juli watches more...
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