Body Swap

Katrina Kahler's Body Swap is a funny story for 9 year olds about a boy and his dad who swap places, whether they like it or not.

What happens

Jack is twelve and his life is going pretty well. He plays football, he's in a band and he has a foolproof plan for asking Holly to the school dance.

Then his dad walks down the corridor at exactly the wrong moment. Jack's dad teaches at his school (can you imagine?), and one wave from him turns Jack's big speech into a disaster. By the end of the day Jack is running punishment laps and absolutely furious.

The two of them are still arguing on the school field when a storm rolls in. There's a crash of lightning, everything goes black, and when Jack comes round he's got his dad's deep voice, hairy legs and neatly combed hair. His dad, meanwhile, is stuck in Jack's.

Jack tells the story himself and he's very sure he's right about everything. His dad is ruining his life, obviously. Then he has to drive them both home in the rusty family car, with his dad squeaking "slowly!" from the passenger seat, and some of that certainty starts to wobble.

There's lots of good silliness. Dad wants to wear a bow tie to Jack's school. Jack has to ring in sick using his dad's voice and panics halfway through the script. And a day home alone with a cupboard full of chocolate goes exactly the way you'd expect.

It's also quietly kind. Jack finds out that being a grown-up is tiring, and his dad gets a taste of the school bus. You can see where it's heading, and that's half the fun.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Jack reads a little older than this shelf in places. There's talk of having the "hottest" girlfriend, a throwaway line about "social suicide", and a scene where a police officer breathalyses Jack (who looks like his dad, remember) because he's driving so slowly. It's all played for laughs. It's also very American, so the football here is the American kind.

What to read next

If your reader loves the idea of a kid trapped in a grown-up's body, David Baddiel's Head Kid does it in a British primary school. Ryan is the naughtiest boy at Bracket Wood, and after a bang on the head he wakes up as the strict new head teacher.