Your child can have a say in how the story goes with this Choose Your Own Adventure book. As the first page explains, simply "Read until you reach a choice. Turn the page of the choice you like best. If you don't like the end you reach, just start over!" There are 18 different endings in this book. Each set of pages includes large, vibrantly colored pictures that are a mix of ink and watercolor and up to a half page of large printed words. This book makes the reader the star by using the less-common second person narrative, speaking directly to the reader with "you" statements. For example, The Haunted House begins with, "You and your dog Homer are walking home from school for lunch one day"

The decision points are cliff hangers, leaving readers eager to decide which story line to follow and find out what happens next. No matter which choices you follow, each adventure within the book requires readers to make at least two choices of which path to follow. This provides your child with more independence than they usually have when reading a story, or having it read to them. It also provides practice in decision-making and teaches that every decision has a consequence. The stories range from giant talking bats, to lands made out of candy, to fighting off a crocodile! You never know where you'll end up! Choosing their own adventure also provides children with practice following directions; the bottom of each page directs them to either the next page, or a specific page number.  

My five year-old niece Emily's favorite story trail was one that ended with the protagonist in a fairytale-like land where houses were made of edible sweets. "This one is cool. It isn't scary at all!" she said excited at the end of one of the adventures. Emily had been quite concerned before we started reading that she would get scared, but she was having so much fun making the decisions of where the story should go that she didn't remember to be scared.

 

--Audra