Freaky Friday takes place in Manhattan, where the Andrews family has a comfortable apartment. (We learn in a later book that it is located at 72nd Street and Central Park West.) Nearly all the other characters in the book gravitate toward the apartment. Only one major scene takes place outside the building: the conference with the staff of the Barden School. Because nearly all the action occurs inside the apartment, much of the humor centers on domestic mishaps like the misbehavior of the washing machine and Annabel's efforts to deal with a repairman by telephone; her attempts to claim that her messy room is really her brother's; and her struggles with the cleaning woman (in person) and the police (by telephone).

Rodgers writes about the milieu she knows best, where she grew up and raised her own children. It is a quintessentially New York book, as many readers...