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Atlas Obscura, children's books, Choose your own adventure, Chooseco, Journey under the sea, maps, R.A. Montgomery, Sarah Laskow
In my search for reading material for the wee one, I came across a post by Sarah Laskow of Atlas Obscura on “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. These can feel like being lost in a maze and running through twists and turns only to find dead ends, switchbacks, and disappointment. In the books—for those not familiar with them—you read until you come to a decision point, which prompts you to flip to another page, backward or forward.
The early books in the series, which began in 1979, have dozens of endings, reached through branching storylines so complex that that trying to keep track of your path can seem hopeless—no matter how many fingers you stick into the book in order to find your way back to the key, fateful choice. You might end up back at an early fork again, surprised at how far you traveled only to reemerge at a simple decision, weighted with consequences that you couldn’t have imagined at the beginning.
The last installment of the original “Choose Your Own Adventure” series came out in 1998, but since 2004, Chooseco, founded by one of the series’ original authors, R.A. Montgomery, has been republishing classic volumes, as well as new riffs on the form of interactive fiction that seemed ubiquitous in the 1980s and ’90s. The new editions also carry an additional feature—maps of the hidden structure of each book.
Choose Well
For years, fans have been creating visualizations of the forking structures of “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. Often, they’re interested in the types of outcomes at the end of each path. One map labels each ending as “new life, return home, or death,” and another separates them into “cliffhanger, solution, or death.” Christian Swinehart’s extensive graphical analysis of the books labels the endings as “great, favorable, mediocre, disappointing, or catastrophic.”
On the official maps, however, the endings aren’t coded in any way that reveals their nature. Instead, they operate according to a simple key: each arrow represents a page, each circle a choice, and each square an ending. Dotted lines show where branches link to one another.
Locating Atlantis
In Journey Under The Sea, you’re trying to locate Atlantis, and while each of the 42 endings is distinct, they can be grouped into categories.
There’s disappointment: You give up the search and someone else finds Atlantis, you don’t quite get there, your ship is destroyed, your eyesight is damaged.
There’s hope: A mysterious submarine saves you, you give up the search but get a second chance, you glimpse Atlantis in the sky.
There are sea dangers: You might ride a whale, get eaten by a fish, escape a shark, get eaten by shark, die by poisonous snake bite, escape a whirlpool and find your ship, escape a whirlpool but die in the ocean, get spit out of a whirlpool and find your ship, or explore a deep hole that you can’t escape from.
There’s Atlantis itself, but you might destroy it before you get in. You might meet Atlanteans and, in a rare case, end up back on the surface. More often, you stay with Atlanteans, who appear in different guises in different endings. You might travel through space-time with them, be an advisor to their king, lead a revolution, end up in a dungeon, get gills implanted, live out your life in a Atlantean zoo, or become a blob of light, an Atlantean farmer, Atlantean musician, or Atlantean historian.
Oh, and there’s also a secret deepwater laboratory.
This book is particularly tough on readers. One analysis found that more than 75 percent of the endings are unfavorable or deadly. One of the most poignant endings is the one where you choose to pull back from your search and someone else finds Atlantis. You regret giving up your search, but, the book says, “You didn’t really have a choice. Did you?”
You can check out the book on Amazon.
mypeacockbooks said:
I loved these Choose your own adventure books as a child and the various different versions that were on sale. I’ve seen books that didn’t have the Choose You Own Adventure brand name but were essentially the same type of book, often tying in with TV shows and even in later years an Enid Blyton inspired version featuring The Famous Five (which had a dice and other things thrown in to make choices more random) I think I still have them stored away somewhere. For me they never felt like books to read although you obvious do read them, and that’s why I always thought they’re a great way to get kids interested in reading. It beat any videogame too :).
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Can you believe I’ve never read/played one? For whatever reason, they weren’t available in Greece when I was growing up–in fact, I still don’t think they are!
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Charles Yallowitz said:
These were always a lot of fun. We actually found a few Batman ones for my son to read since he’s a superheroes only kid now. My favorites were The Haunted House and a pirate adventure. Never did get the good endings on those.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Hardly surprising, given the percentages for a negative outcome mentioned here!
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Charles Yallowitz said:
Makes sense though. Hitting a negative would cause one to try again for the positive. Once you get a good ending, you’d be less inclined to read again.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I hadn’t thought of that, but now you mention it, it makes perfect sense 😮
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Charles Yallowitz said:
Yeah. Took me years to figure that piece of manipulation out.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
A cunning plot, my Lord!
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gibsonauthor said:
Reblogged this on s a gibson.
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Steve Boseley said:
Oh my goodness! I loved these growing up! I’m not sure if the ‘Fighting Fantasy’ series by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone made it around the world, but they were great. It was probably one of the first books I could get my children really into, role playing their decisions whilst I read the story.
I recently spent a couple of years working in a primary school! (with 9&10 yr olds). I was tasked with engaging the ‘challenging ‘ children in literacy. Reading a book was hard work, but when I introduced ‘choose your own adventure ‘ books, they were hooked!
I recently came across a website that exists to help authors plan out such adventures. I wish I could remember what it was…if you can remember, let me know. If you can’t remember, your adventure ends here…
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol – my adventure just ended, it seems, as I have no idea what that might be. I’ll keep my eyes open, though 😀
Thank you for sharing your experience, Steve 🙂
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Rae Longest said:
I used these books back in the mid-eighties with my junior high students, and they converted many reluctant readers to avid ones. Thanks for the spotlight on a marvelous reader-magnet.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
You’re the second person to suggest they appeal particularly well to reluctant readers. I must remember that!
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debyfredericks said:
I remember reading a Dragonriders of Pern one, long time ago.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I didn’t realize Dragonriders of Pern was available in this format!
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debyfredericks said:
There was just the one.
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Marina Costa said:
I never saw books this format, but there are some games/ stories online this way, which I loved.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Oh, absolutely. I’d only played the games myself, so I was surprised to find out their printed ancestors 🙂
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