No Bones About It

Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo #12

by Nancy E. Krulik, John & Wendy (Illustrator)

The class 3A trip to the Natural History Museum is turning out to be a disaster:  Many of Katie's excited classmates are acting up, and they turn on Katie and call her a goodie-goodie when she won't join in!  Even worse, their tour guide, Mr.  Weir, is a big meanie!  Still, when Katie turns into Mr. Weir and causes a big disaster of her own, it's up to her to make things right-and save Mr. Weir's job!

Genres: Childrens, Chapter Books, Fiction

80 pages, Paperback

Published March 30, 2004

About the author

Nancy Krulik is the author of more than 100 books for children and young adults, including three New York Times bestsellers. She is best known, however, for being the author and creator of the Katie Kazoo Switcheroo book series, which has brought her to the attention of second, third, and fourth graders nationwide.

Nancy has also written extensively for teens and is well known as a biographer of Hollywood's hottest young stars. Her knowledge of the details of celebrities lives has made her a desired guest on several entertainment shows on the E! network as well as on Extra and Access Hollywood. She can be seen there talking about the secret lives of such celebs as Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Hilary Duff, and Frankie Muniz. Nancy has also been a guest on radio broadcasts nationwide discussing the superstars she has researched over the years.

As the author of several teen and preteen advice books, including Grosset and Dunlap's Prom!: The Complete Guide to a Truly Spectacular Night, Nancy has been interviewed by several prominent magazines including Cosmo Girl, Teen, Teen People, Seventeen, and Teen Celebrity. She has also been the celebrity guest for three Teen People chat presentations. Nancy has recently begun to delve into the teen novel market, writing four romances for young adults, all of which will be published between 2004 and 2005.

Nancy currently lives in Manhattan with her husband, composer Daniel Burwasser, their two children, Amanda and Ian, and a crazed cockerspaniel named Pepper .

Reviews

[Tyler Replogle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My six year old daughter said it was cool because there were dinosaurs in it and there can be different kinds of dinosaurs and dinosaurs are cool.

[Jason Pettus · Rating 4 out of 5]

(I now maintain a blog just for my kid-lit reviews. Find it at http://kidlit4adults.blogspot.com .)

A friend has convinced me to try my hand this year at writing children's literature; but I don't actually know anything about children's literature, so am starting the process simply by reading a large selection of titles that have been recommended to me. Nancy Krulik's "Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo" series was one of them, which I was specifically told is a great example of books perfect for third-graders; and indeed, the two books I read (this and Gotcha! Gotcha Back!) seemed to feature many of the traits that I was told are important to include in literature for this age group, including a strong sense of humor, a quickly-paced but not too complicated storyline, a concentration on the ways that boys and girls interact at that age, lots of action and mystery, many scenes set in a school environment, and sentences that average around ten words. For parents, also know that Krulik designs each book to center on one or two common moral lessons she details at her website, and that all the titles feature a racially diverse cast of schoolmates and teachers. These are chapter-books with Americanized manga illustrations by professional duo "John & Wendy," each lasting a little under 10,000 words; 32 exist in the series as of January 2010, and a plethora of supplemental information is offered at the website for teachers and parents.

[Anna Salvesen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Katie and her class were going on their last field trip of the year to the museum and Katie got stuck in the hall and couldn't find her class. The magic wind blew her into the dinosaur hall where Mrs. Dirkman, their teacher, was and Katie turned into their tour guide. Since she was the tour guide and the tour guide couldn't handle children, Katie had to pretend she couldn't handle children. Mrs. Dirkman was with one half of the class and the tour guide was with the other half of the class. A boy in the tour guide's group climbed up the dinosaur tail and broke it. So the class had to put it back together before Mrs. Dirkman saw it. Right after they finished, Katie got a beep in her pocket that said someone was at the tour guide's office. So Katie went to the office but right when she got to the door, she felt the magic wind blow her back into her normal self.

[Jackie Chevalier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book Katie changed into the museum tour guide, Mr. Weir. This caused issues when Katie realized that she didn’t know much about museums, especially the dinosaur exhibit she was currently in. When George climbed on one of the displays, she tries to chase after him forgetting she was Mr. Weir causing the entire tail to come down. I think the book did a good job at showing how teamwork can make things fun and a little easier on everyone when they decided to fix it together. Although Mr. Weir and the kids weren’t the nicest to each other, they came together to make life easier for each other.

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny story about another Katie mix-up - this time with the museum director of education during a field trip.

[Kelsie Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

* 3.5 *

Cute but not the best. I liked the museum aspect.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im a bit amused about the logic with the direction a dinosaurs tail points indicating it's species.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book talks about how Katie kazoo's class goes on a trip to the museum. In the museum a portion of people gets lost and gets into a room full of bones that are build up into a dinosaur. But they broke it and they had to build it back together but they weren't sure how the tail was suppose to be so they were all guessing but it was wrong. Afterwards one of the specialists there was saying that it was wrong but like they think that it was cool how they placed it and they might be right. I think that when you look at something in another angle it might not be right but it might not be wrong also. I would recommend this to everyone.

[Rebekah · Rating 1 out of 5]

It made me so mad the way Katie was treated for following the rules. And the behavior in the museum was awful. I didn't feel there was enough remorse felt. Yes, kids do misbehave. And unfortunately, well-behaved kids are often teased. And just walking around a museum isn't as fun as really getting to touch and participate, especially with an adult who doesn't appreciate kids. Perhaps Krulik felt the magic wind is enough fantasy, and doesn't want to make too much of a point or lesson. I usually think Katie Kazoo books can be fun to read in a sitting, but this one made me too angry.

[Kelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Katie Kazoo feels the magic wind, then becomes another person for a time. A series for elementary readers.

[Miki · Rating 5 out of 5]

good

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

katie goes to the museum and changes into the tour guide. She almost gets her fired.