Read Katie Kazoo Switcheroo – Anyone But Me free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Nancy Krulik's Anyone But Me is the first Katie Kazoo Switcheroo book, a funny magic story for 7 year olds about a girl whose wish to be somebody else comes true the very next morning.
Katie Carew is having a truly rotten day. She misses the ball and loses the game for her team. She splashes through a muddy puddle in her favourite flowery jeans. Then she's called up to the board in maths and lets out the loudest burp of her life.
George Brennan, who's mean to just about everyone in class 3A, makes the most of every bit of it. By home time he's given her a new name (Katie Kazoo, because a burped song sounds like one) and half the class is chanting it.
So that night, out on her front step, Katie shouts a wish into the dark. She'd rather be anybody at all than herself. A shooting star flashes past, but she's far too upset to notice.
The next morning a strange little whirlwind spins around Katie and nobody else. When it stops she's furry, twitchy and stuck behind glass. She's turned into Speedy, the class hamster!
This is where it gets really fun. Katie still has her own brain, but her hamster body keeps taking over. Her teeth need a good chew. She builds a ladder out of chew sticks to escape (it doesn't go well). And she just can't stop running on that squeaky wheel.
Then she gets loose. There's a classroom full of grabbing hands, a dash down the corridor and a hiding place that turns out to be somebody's very smelly trainer. Your reader will probably be squealing right along with her.
Who knew the class bully would be so scared of something so small? Katie enjoys watching George leap onto the teacher's desk a LOT. Deep down she also knows that two wrongs don't make a right, which gives all the giggles a kind heart.
It's a quick, easy read with short chapters and plenty of chatter. If you've got a reader who's had one of those days where EVERYTHING goes wrong in front of everyone, they'll understand exactly why Katie made that wish. It's an American school, so expect third grade and recess, but none of it gets in the way.
If this one goes down well, Nancy Krulik's Grilled Cheese and Dragons has another girl who isn't happy with the name she's been given. Serena would much rather be a knight than a princess, so she's renamed herself Princess Pulverizer.
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