Let your child 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!" Each set of pages includes large, vibrantly colored ink and watercolor pictures 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, Always Picked Last begins, "YOU are an ELF! Yup! You are different from humans - those giants who live in the Upper World."


No matter which choice you follow, each adventure within the book requires readers to make at least two choices of which path to follow, and which page to turn to and read what happens next. 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. With each different ending, a new lesson is taught, such as finding what you are good at and can be proud of, the difference between pride and boasting or bragging, treating others as you would like to be treated, practice makes perfect, or the severe consequences of lying . 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 niece Emily recently turned five and is a big fan of this book. She enjoys the freedom and responsibility of deciding major plot twists in the story, but she also loves the pictures and will often ask me to wait a moment before turning the page so she can study the picture a bit more. Always Picked Last sparked Emily's imagination, and she told me that she believes in elves and is always careful not to step on them when she's playing in the backyard.

 

--Audra