Customer Reviews

Anyone but Me (Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo No. 1)

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This series is wonderful for all students. It is one of the series I use in my classroom and it never fails to get all students "hooked" on reading. They are anxious to see what happens. It is fun to see them applying the comprehension skills we are working on in class.

Every vegetarian child should enjoy the company of a like-minded friend. That's exactly what she gets in the children's books series Katie Kazoo Switcheroo. In the series, Nancy Krulik shares the trials and tribulations of Katie Carew, your typical puppy loving, pizza eating, camp going, jump rope playing third grader. Katie also happens to be an ovo-lacto vegetarian.

While Krulik has given Katie meat-loving omnivorous parents, she has endowed on them whole-hearted support when Katie decides that she is "never, ever going to eat anything that had had a face." Katie's mom whips up everything from Katie's favorite, veggie burgers, to stir-fried tofu with broccoli for dinners. She encourages Katie when she signs up for a cooking class and gives her plenty of freedom to explore in the kitchen, providing healthy staples such as carrots, celery and peanut butter.

In fact, Krulik surrounds the third grader with a multitude of encouraging adults and friends. Louie the pizza guy serves up his super veggie special with extra spinach. The camp cook packs Katie's bag of trail food with extra carrots and leaves out the meat. Her best friend, Suzanne, brings a mix of rice, lentils, and tomato sauce for lunch and frequently joins Katie in a tray of macaroni and cheese with chocolate pudding and milk. Perhaps it is this support that gives the youngster confidence in speaking up for herself and asserting the fact that she does not eat meat.

Krulik creatively weaves these aspects of vegetarianism and, less occasionally, animal rights concepts into the main plot of her stories. In the books, Katie is overcome by a magic wind and temporarily turns into one of her friends, teachers, neighbors, or even the classroom hamster. So for just a little while, she must see what it's like to live in someone else's shoes (or paws!).

I highly recommend this entertaining series for early readers. The books are fun, funny, and in a very sneaky way teach a wonderful lesson. Katie Kazoo is the like-minded friend so desperately needed by children of this age. I can already hear your sons and daughters exclaim, "Hey, I don't eat meat either. She's just like me!" Tammie Ortlieb

Katie Kazoo Switcheroo Anyone But Me

By Nancy Krulik

Does Katie's wish come true in her fantasy world? Katie isn't a tomboy but her favorite sport is football, and she likes playing it with the boys. But when she missed the ball and made the team lose. The team yelled at Katie.

When she got home and plays outside she makes a wish as a shouting star shoots by in the sky. The next day the wind picks up and what happens next?

There is not a lot books like this but I can compare it to my life and me because I was afraid of the class bully and than I found out what he was afraid of.

I like when Katie makes her wish!!

I hope you will like the same thing as I do.

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Chelsey

Jurrens

This is a great book because the lesson I learned is to never be so mad at a certain person who is teasing you and not notice a shooting star. Katie Carew has two best friends and their names are Sussane and Jeremy. Also there is a boy in the same class as all three of them and his name is George. George teases everybody but, mostly Katie. At home Katie is so mad at George that she makes a wish and she says that she was anybody but herself. Then a shooing star comes by.

I think the Katie Kazoo series is the best. Katie, the main character, turns into someone else in all the books by a magic wind. The best parts in the books are when she gets to be another person. Although she always changes back, I still like them. In the very back of the book there is always a craft you can do. The other main characters, Katie's friends Suzanne Lock and Jeremy Fox, don't get along very well. They are always fighting. That's why I think the Katie Kazoo series is the best.

I am a reading teacher and tutor who's always looking for new titles for my 3rd and 4th grade students (Scholastic's website informs me that the Katie Kazoo series falls between 3.0 and 3.5 reading level equivalent). It's difficult to find books at the transition level between children's books and chapter books that aren't either shallow or boring. Nancy Krulik has provided an antidote, as the books succeed on multiple levels. My students find the dialogue funny, and the plots captivating. Beyond that, Krulik has created characters and themes that make discussions really easy. In general, the narratives follow this pattern: Katie and her friends make simplistic assumptions about someone or something that they don't know very well (and who is not without flaws); Katie temporarily transforms into a person or animal, and that transformation provides her with a unique perspective; she learns something about her own assumptions, revises them, and usually brings a new friend into her group in the process. Students can identify with nearly everyone in the story; teachers, tutors, and parents can facilitate relevant, complex, and age-appropriate discussions.

And one more note: these books can be enjoyed by both boys and girls. Not only does Krulic tackle gender-neutral problems and issues, but both girl and boy characters regularly play key roles. The pastel covers belie the stories' wide appeal.