Mind-Swapping Madness

Bonkers Short Stories Book 1

Children - Grade 4th-6th
244 Pages
Reviewed on 09/18/2018
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    Book Review

Reviewed by Donna Gielow McFarland for Readers' Favorite

Mind-Swapping Madness (Bonkers Short Stories Book 1) written by Tom E Moffatt and illustrated by Paul Beavis is a collection of seven short stories involving characters who, one way or another, swap minds into another person or animal’s body. In one story, a kid uses an electric fly swatter to hit a fly that lands on his brother and, oops, his brother’s mind is swapped with the fly’s. Another unfortunate kid ends up in the body of a Morse code stomping horse. A mutual sneeze swaps a ten-year-old boy with his baby sister. And in more sinister stories, the swap is made intentionally by alien beings. Written for the 4th-6th grade crowd, the stories all contain colorful cartoon-style spot illustrations.

I think Tom Moffatt hit the nail on the head to appeal to his target audience, especially boys. The stories in Mind-Swapping Madness are short and goofy with enough funny illustrations that they will likely entice even the most reluctant readers. The standout for me was the story where a boy gets stuck as a toad and knows he can only get out by tricking someone else into kissing the toad and thereby taking his place. I found some of the stories to be a little creepy for my taste, but kids are going to love them. My son is past the target age range now, but when he was 8 or 10 I know he would have thought the stories in Mind-Swapping Madness were hilarious. A lot of creativity went into the writing and illustrating of Bonkers Short Stories. Highly recommended for kids in 4th-6th grade, especially boys.