The Swap

Piper Livingston

804

In “The Swap” by Megan Shull, Jack and Ellie’s lives are switched by a school nurse for a whole weekend. Jack was in Ellie’s body and Ellie was in Jack’s body. They had to act like eachother so they wouldn’t give away that they were different people. They both learn about each other in so many different ways and by the end of the book, even if they were complete strangers three days before, they became very close. Being in someone else’s shoes can really change how you see other people. People act different around different genders and ellie and jack got to see the different sides of each other’s friends. They also understood the daily problems that they had to face. this changed them for the better because in some ways it made the grateful for what they had but also they learned how some other people’s lives differ from theirs. 

While Jack was in Ellie’s body, he went to a sleepover with a bunch of other girls, including Sassy Gaines, a girl that’s always flirting with him, and Aspen, Sassy’s bestfriend. At the sleepover, Sassy was acting bossy and selfish and treating her friends like they were her servants. Jack learned that the Sassy that flirts with him all the time is not the real Sassy. The real Sassy is a mean, selfish, nightmare who talks to her “friends” in a really rude way. This teaches the reader how sometimes people may not be who they seem. People change themselves sometimes because they think it might make certain people accept them or like them better. 

Throughout the book, Ellie realises how lucky she is to have a loving and caring mother. Jack’s mother passed away a year and a half before and his father is intense and normally seems like he has no heart. On the other hand, Ellie's mom makes pancakes every morning and hugs her when she comes him from school. While Ellie was in Jacks body, she noticed how different their parents are from one another and it made her miss hers drastically. This teaches the reader how you should not take the nice people in your life for granted because other people may not be treated the same way. Especially be grateful for your parents because they are the people you see everyday and they are almost like the controllers of your life. 

To conclude, Ellie and Jack learned more than they expected for one weekend. They learned important lessons such as don't take what you have for granted and if you want someone to like you, be yourself. These lessons are very important because they are some key traits to being a genuine and caring person. I learned from this book because reason about jacks strict family made me grateful.