Katie Kazoo Switcheroo – I Hate Rules!

Nancy Krulik's I Hate Rules! is a Katie Kazoo Switcheroo book for 7 year olds, and it belongs to a girl who once wished she could be anybody but herself.

What happens

Katie made the wish after one spectacularly rotten day. Now a magic wind arrives without any warning at all and turns her into somebody else. It has already made her the class hamster, the school lunch lady, a baby, and one of her own best friends.

This one starts with a rules problem. Katie's teacher, Mrs Derkman, has a rule for everything. George forgets his homework and loses his break for it. Katie passes a note and gets caught. Then there's a phone that's not hers.

Katie has had it with rules.

So of course the wind picks that exact moment to turn her into Mr Kane, the head teacher. And a head teacher can make rules. Or get rid of them.

Your reader will see where this is going about ten seconds before it goes there, which is most of the fun. A child with a grown-up's authority and absolutely no judgement is a reliably funny thing to watch.

It's sharper about school than you might expect. Katie won't hand her note to the boy sitting between her and Suzanne, because it isn't his note and why should he be the one in trouble. Suzanne turns up to break with her dad's mobile and a hands-free headset because it makes her look grown up, and Miriam tells her it works. Both of those are absolutely true to life.

Reading it is light and quick. Short chapters, plenty of dialogue, and George dropping jokes at a steady rate throughout.

This sits somewhere in the middle of the series rather than at the start, which you can tell because Katie spends part of chapter two reminding you what the wind has already done to her. It still works perfectly well on its own.

What to read next

If the switching is the draw, Doggone It has the wind turning Katie into her own dog, right after her teacher moves in next door and starts campaigning about leads.