Choose Your Own Adventure

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Choose Your Own Adventure
Cave of time.jpg
The Cave of Time by Edward Packard, the first book in the series
Cover artistPaul Granger
Language English
GenreGamebook
Publisher Bantam Books
Published1979–1998 (original series)
Media typePrint
No. of books184 (original series) (List of books)

Choose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions and the plot's outcome. The series was based upon a concept created by Edward Packard and originally published by Constance Cappel's and R. A. Montgomery's Vermont Crossroads Press as the "Adventures of You" series, starting with Packard's Sugarcane Island in 1976. [1]

Contents

Choose Your Own Adventure, as published by Bantam Books, was one of the most popular children's series during the 1980s and 1990s, selling more than 250 million copies between 1979 and 1998. [2] The series has been translated into 40 languages. When Bantam, now owned by Random House, allowed the Choose Your Own Adventure trademark to lapse, the series was relaunched by Chooseco. Chooseco does not reissue titles by Packard, who has started his own imprint, U-Ventures. [3]

Format

Originally created for 7- to 14-year-olds, the books are written in the second person. The protagonist—that is, the reader—takes on a role relevant to the adventure, such as a private investigator, mountain climber, race car driver, doctor, or spy. Certain books in the series allow readers choice of whom to take the role of, for example, in an adventure book, readers may be prompted to choose between a climber, a hiker, or a traveler. Stories are generally gender- and race-neutral, though in some cases, particularly in illustrations, there is the presumption of a male reader (the target demographic group). [4] In some stories, the protagonist is implied to be a child, [5] whereas in other stories, he/she is an adult. [5]

The stories are formatted so that, after a few pages of reading, the protagonist faces two or three options, each of which leads to further pages and further options, and so on until they arrive at one of the many story endings. [1] The number of endings varies from as many as 44 in the early titles to as few as 7 in later adventures. Likewise, there is no clear pattern among the various titles regarding the number of pages per ending, the ratio of good to bad endings, or the reader's progression backwards and forwards through the pages of the book. This allows for a realistic sense of unpredictability, and leads to the possibility of repeat readings, which is one of the distinguishing features of the books. [6]

As the series progressed, both Packard and Montgomery experimented with the gamebook format, sometimes introducing unexpected twists such as endless page loops or trick endings. Examples include the "paradise planet" ending in Inside UFO 54-40, which can only be reached by cheating or turning to the wrong page by accident. [4] [lower-alpha 1] The only way out of this is to "reset", or close the book and start over from the first page.

History

According to Packard, the core idea for the series emerged from bedtime stories that he told to his daughters, revolving around a character named Pete and his adventures: "I had a character named Pete and I usually had him encountering all these different adventures on an isolated island. But that night I was running out of things for Pete to do, so I just asked what they would do". His two daughters came up with different paths for the story to take and Packard thought up an ending for each of the paths: "What really struck me was the natural enthusiasm they had for the idea. And I thought: 'Could I write this down?'" [8]

Packard soon developed this basic premise into a manuscript titled The Adventures of You on Sugar Cane Island. He set out in 1970 to find a publisher but was rejected by nine publishing companies, causing him to shelve the idea. In 1975, he was able to convince Ray Montgomery, co-owner of Vermont Crossroads Press, to publish the book and it sold 8,000 copies, a large amount for a small local publishing house. The series was later marketed to Pocket Books, where it also sold well, but Montgomery believed that it would sell better if a bigger publisher could be found. After some discussion, Montgomery was able to make a contract for the series with Bantam Books. Packard and Montgomery were selected to write books for the series, including the contracting out of titles to additional authors. [8]

The phrase Choose Your Own Adventure was adapted for the next title with the tag line, The Third Planet from Altair: Choose your own adventure in outer space.

The series was highly successful after it began printing with Bantam Books. A 1981 article in The New York Times , followed by an interview with Packard on The Today Show , provided free publicity. [9]

By the 1990s, the series faced competition from computer games and was in a decline. The series was discontinued in 1999, but was relaunched by a new company, Chooseco, in 2003. Montgomery died in 2014; his final Choose Your Own Adventure book was Gus vs. the Robot King. [9]

In June 2018, Z-Man Games issued a licensed co-operative board game called Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger inspired by R. A. Montgomery's book in the series. [10] [11]

In January 2019, Chooseco initiated a trademark infringement legal challenge against Netflix for the film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch . [12] [13] Netflix settled the suit in November 2020. [14]

Literary reception

A Smithsonian article criticizes the style as "formulaic" and quotes a scholar stating that "in terms of literary quality, many of the multiple-storyline books are true skunks". [15]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Under a special warning on page 1 of Inside UFO 54-40, the reader is informed that they may hear about Ultima, the planet of paradise, and that "no one can get there by making choices or following instructions". There is no choice whatsoever to get to the Ultima ending on page 101, which begins, "You did not make a choice, or follow any direction, but now, somehow, you are descending from space - approaching [Ultima]". [7]

Related Research Articles

A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not follow paragraphs in a linear or ordered fashion. Gamebooks are sometimes called choose your own adventure books or CYOA after the influential Choose Your Own Adventure series originally published by US company Bantam Books. Gamebooks influenced hypertext fiction.

Time Machine is a series of children's novels published in the United States by Bantam Books from 1984 to 1989, similar to their more successful Choose Your Own Adventure line of "interactive" novels. Each book was written in the second person, with the reader choosing how the story should progress. They were designed by Byron Preiss Visual Publications.

Shannon Gilligan is an author of interactive fiction and computer games.

<i>Give Yourself Goosebumps</i> Childrens horror gamebook series

Give Yourself Goosebumps is a children's horror fiction gamebook series by R. L. Stine. After the success of the original Goosebumps books, Scholastic Press decided to create this spin-off series in 1995. In fact, Stine had written gamebooks in previous years.

Edward Packard is an American author, creator of the Choose Your Own Adventure book concept and author of more than 50 books in the series. The genre that Packard invented, in which the reader chooses what happens, has come to be called "interactive fiction". Packard wrote many other children's books as well, and is also a lawyer, essayist, and poet. He continues to write books, and blogs regularly on his website, edwardpackard.com. Born in Huntington, New York, he is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nintendo gamebooks</span> Novels based on Nintendo video games

Nintendo gamebooks are novels based on video games created by Nintendo. The gamebooks feature characters and settings from the Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda franchises, in two series, Nintendo Adventure Books and You Decide on the Adventure.

Raymond Almiran Montgomery Jr. was an American author and key figure in the Choose Your Own Adventure interactive children's book series.

<i>Steve Jacksons Sorcery!</i>

Sorcery!, originally titled Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, is a single-player four-part adventure gamebook series written by Steve Jackson and illustrated by John Blanche. Originally published by Penguin Books between 1983 and 1985, the titles are part of the Fighting Fantasy canon, but were not allocated numbers within the original 59-book series. Sorcery! was re-published by Wizard Books in 2003 and recreated as the Sorcery! video game series by Inkle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Endless Quest</span>

The Endless Quest books were three series of gamebooks. The first two series were released in the 1980s and 1990s by TSR, while the third series was released by Wizards of the Coast. Originally, these books were the result of an Educational department established by TSR with the intention of developing curriculum programs for subjects such as reading, math, history, and problem solving.

The Zork books were a series of four books, written by S. Eric Meretzky, which took place in the fictional universe of Zork. The books were published by Tor Books. Like the Zork video games, the books were a form of interactive fiction which offered the reader a choice of actions symbolized by pages to turn to, as in the contemporary book series Choose Your Own Adventure or the later Give Yourself Goosebumps series. The protagonists of each book were a boy and girl, called Bill and June on Earth and re-dubbed Bivotar and Juranda in Zork. The settings and plots were reminiscent of locations and events from the Zork universe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chooseco</span> American publishing company

Chooseco LLC is an American publishing company based in Waitsfield, Vermont. Founded in 2003 by author R. A. Montgomery and publisher Shannon Gilligan, the company primarily releases reissues of Montgomery's Choose Your Own Adventure series of gamebooks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Be an Interplanetary Spy</span> Book series

Be An Interplanetary Spy is a series of twelve interactive children's science fiction books designed by Byron Preiss Visual Publications and first published by Bantam Books from 1983 to 1985.

Fantasy Forest is a series of ten gamebooks published by TSR, Inc. from 1983 to 1984. The books are works of children's literature; eight of them are set in the fantasy world of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game created by TSR, Inc., and two are set in TSR's science fiction world of Star Frontiers. They have been compared to other gamebook series, such as Choose Your Own Adventure or Endless Quest.

Pretty Little Mistakes is a book written by Heather McElhatton and published on May 1, 2007 by HarperCollins.

<i>Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman</i> 2006 American film

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman is a 2006 animated interactive DVD movie based on the Choose Your Own Adventure gamebook of the same name by R. A. Montgomery. Viewers make choices every 3–6 minutes using their DVD player remote control to determine what happens. It was released on DVD on July 25, 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twistaplot</span> Childrens Gamebook

Twistaplot is a series of children's gamebooks that were published by Scholastic from 1982 to 1985. Books #1, #4, #9, and #14 were written by R.L. Stine, who would go on to write the Fear Street series and the Goosebumps series, which in turn spawned the gamebook spin-off series Give Yourself Goosebumps. The remaining books were written by various authors including Louise Munro Foley. They were Scholastic's response to the Choose Your Own Adventure series. After the success of the Goosebumps series, the Twistaplot titles that were written by R. L. Stine were reissued with new covers in 1994 and 1995.

<i>Black Mirror: Bandersnatch</i> 2018 interactive film by David Slade

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is a 2018 interactive film in the science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. It was written by series creator Charlie Brooker and directed by David Slade. The film premiered on Netflix on 28 December 2018, its release date only officially announced the day before. Netflix did not confirm the interactive nature of Bandersnatch until its release, though there was much media speculation.

<i>Consider the Consequences!</i> 1930 American interactive romantic novel

Consider the Consequences! is a romantic novel in the form of an interactive novel or gamebook by the American writing partnership of Doris Webster (1885–1967) and Mary Alden Hopkins (1876–1960). It is the earliest known gamebook, and has 43 different endings.

References

  1. 1 2 Scott Kraft (October 10, 1981). "He Chose His Own Adventure". The Day . Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  2. ↑ Lodge, Sally (18 Jan 2007). "Chooseco Embarks on Its Own Adventure". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
  3. ↑ Conan, Neal. "'Choose Your Own Adventure' Gets An iMakeover". NPR News Transcripts. NPR. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  4. 1 2 Hendrix, Grady (18 February 2011). "Choose Your Own Adventure How The Cave of Time taught us to love interactive entertainment". Slate. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  5. 1 2 Katz, Demian. "Demian's Gamebook Web Page" . Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  6. ↑ Swinehart, Christian. "One Book, Many Readings" . Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  7. ↑ Jamieson, Gavin (21 March 2015). "The 7 Most F***ed Up Real 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Books" . Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  8. 1 2 Sandi Scaffetti (March 30, 1986). "Interactive fiction". The Beaver County Times . Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  9. 1 2 "The Enduring Allure of Choose Your Own Adventure Books". The New Yorker. 12 September 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  10. ↑ "Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger". Z-MAN Games.
  11. ↑ "Choose Your Own Adventure Publisher Relaunches Its Website - CBS News 8 - San Diego, CA News Station - KFMB Channel 8". Archived from the original on 2019-02-01. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  12. ↑ Chmielewski, Dawn (11 January 2019). "Netflix's 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' Sued Over Use Of "Choose Your Own Adventure"". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  13. ↑ Gardner, Eriq (11 January 2019). "Netflix's 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' Leads to "Choose Your Own Adventure" Trademark Lawsuit". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  14. ↑ Gardner, Eriq (24 November 2020). "Netflix Chooses Settlement to End Trademark Lawsuit Over 'Black Mirror'". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  15. ↑ "The Surprisingly Long History of 'Choose-Your-Own-Adventure' Stories". Smithsonian Magazine. 4 May 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
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