CASE in Access 2000 SQL

My SQL books tell me I should be able to
SELECT CASE column
WHEN value1 THEN valueA
WHEN value2 THEN valueB
etc….
END AS revaluedcolumn;
I get a syntax error(missing operator) message with the column name highlighted. Help does not help. In the on-line manual I can find nothing about CASE. SWITCH, which, I am told, works the same way as CASE, in fact refuses the same way as CASE to work. I know I can use UPDATE, but the number of values I have to convert makes this impractical.