The story starts off with Gary Lutz sitting under his big oak tree in his back
yard reading his comic books. Then Gary’s pain in the butt neighbor, Mr.
Andretti, keeps scaring Gary by telling Gary that Mr. Andretti’s beehive has
gone crazy. Gary falls for it every time because Gary is afraid of bees. All
day, Gary reads his comic books because he hates to do anything else. No one
likes Gary because they think he’s a nerd, because he stinks at sports and looks
weird. For instance, one time Gary was lined up to play baseball with the other
students and was last in line, and at the end of the game they lost because he
struck out. So, one of the big kids came up to him and punched him in the nose,
so Gary ended up having to go home with a bloody nose. The next day Gary found
an ad while surfing on the web. It said in big bold letters, “Body
Swapping. Switch Bodies With Someone Else for One Whole Week.” Gary liked
that idea because he needed a long vacation from himself. He decided that he
would go to the body-swapping place the next day since it was only few blocks
away. (What a coincidence) The next day Gary went to the company and asked if he
could switch bodies with someone else. The lady at the front desk, named Ms.
Karmen, gave a picture to Gary and asked if he wanted to switch bodies with boy
his age named Barry. Gary said he would because this guy was really cool
looking. Ms. Karmen said she would come to his house the next day. The next day
Ms. Karmen showed up on time and set up the equipment. She started the machine.
Then something went wrong. Gary turned into a bee! Ms. Karmen didn’t know what
happened to Gary, so she took her equipment and left. Gary tried to get help,
but he couldn’t because he was just a bee. Gary found out that one of Mr.
Andretti’s bees got in the machine. Gary got used to how a bee flies, and then
he went outside to get some pollen because he was hungry. After his meal, Gary
went for a flight but got caught in a net! It was Mr. Andretti. He thought that
Gary was one of the lost bees from his hive, and Mr. Andretti put Gary in this
big dark beehive. Gary tried to get out but he couldn’t. Then Gary remembered
something. Bees have to leave the hive to get pollen to make honey! There had to
be a way out! So Gary started looking. All these bees started chasing Gary, and
Gary didn’t know why. All these bees surrounded Gary and aimed their stingers at
him. He found out that they were moving Gary aside, because another bee was
doing a dance. Gary remembered that when bees do a dance, it means they’re
giving directions to other bees where good pollen is. Gary wandered around a
little bit. Gary thought that he was in a big scary maze. Then Gary found a
little hole. It was an exit! Gary hurried and got himself out of there. The
light was so bright Gary felt as if he were on the sun. The first thing that
popped into Gary’s mind was going to Ms. Karmen, so Gary started flying to the
company. When Gary got there the door wasn’t open, so Gary slipped in the mail
slot. Gary saw Ms. Karmen, but he realized that he couldn’t get to her because
there was a Plexiglas wall between her and Gary. Gary slipped under Ms. Karmen’s
desk. Gary remembered that he couldn’t talk to anyone because he had such a
small voice. Then Gary remembered that Ms. Karmen had a microphone to speak to
the kids through the Plexiglas wall. Gary flew over to the microphone and spoke
through it to get Ms. Karmen’s attention. Once Ms. Karmen had realized where
Gary was, she sadly said that Barry didn’t want to give up being Gary because
Barry was teaching everyone how to skateboard, and all the girls liked him. Gary
was very upset, so he immediately flew to his house, where Barry was. When Gary
got there, he knew that he would die if he stung Barry, but because he was so
upset and not thinking clearly Gary stung Barry anyway. Suddenly everything
started to fade, and Gary realized that he was dying. Then Gary woke up. He was
back to his regular life. Gary was confused, so he just thought that it was a
dream. Gary needed some air so he went outside and all the girls were on Gary’s
driveway ready for their skateboard lessons. Gary found out that he was really
good at skateboarding. The main character in this book is Gary Lutz. Gary Lutz
is afraid easily and very observant. Gary is a scared boy because he is scared
of about everything, like when a bee was by him and he ran away. He is observant
because when he was in the hive he kept watching the bees closely to see what
they were doing, like when the bees were doing a dance, and he realized that the
bees were giving directions. I think that the theme of the book is, life is good
so don’t make any changes, because Gary wanted to change his life by switching
bodies with someone else but it turned into a disaster. That’s why you should
appreciate who you are and not compare others with you. I think the author wrote
the book to entertain because I know that R. L. Stine likes to entertain people
with horror stories. I didn’t like this book very much because it was very fake
sounding.
