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!" There are eight different endings in this book. 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, Your Purrr-fect Birthday begins, "Tomorrow is your birthday. You can hardly wait. There is just one problem."  

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 choice 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. For example, on one page readers have to choose to either be sent to ancient Egypt, "When cats ruled all of Egypt" or go to the World of Birthdays Never Remembered, described as "risky but lots of fun." Where would your child go? 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.  

Emily, my five year-old niece loved looking at the pictures while I read because of all the cats. Even though the main cat in this adventure book was more wicked than cute and cuddly, Emily was not deterred. She caught on to the comment about cats being kings in ancient Egypt and asked me - while eyeing her beagle Charley - where and when dogs were kings. I could tell the adventure stories had her imagination working hard, and she was probably imagining Charley in a business suite giving executive orders 'way back in the 80s' (as Emily likes to remind me was sooooooo long ago).

 

--Audra