Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Reader's Advisory
Readers' Advisory – Use this label for RA strategies and particular recommendations, as well as book talks. For example, “Here are books I have recommended to kids who want more wizards and magic now that Harry Potter is done,” or "I had a great RA experience when book talking to a small group of 4th graders today!"
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Subject: Choose Your Own Adventure: 21st-Century
Fresh Approaches: Noteworthy New Editions and Reissues This article originally appeared in SLJ’s Extra Helping. Sign up now!
Joy Fleishhacker -- School Library Journal, 4/28/2008 2:27:00 PM
Choose Your Own Adventure: 21st-Century Style
Librarians active during the 1980s and 90s will recall placing copies of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series (Bantam) in the hands of many a child…and often having them return, eager for more. In these edge-of-your-seat volumes, readers play the role of the protagonist, determining the course the plot will take by choosing one of several scenarios each with its own outcome. Between 1979 and 1998, more than 180 CYOA titles were published with sales topping 250 million copies.
The series has been relaunched by Chooseco, a Vermont-based publishing company founded in 2004 by R. A. Montgomery, CYOA’s creator, and his wife and copublisher Shannon Gilligan, author of several CYOA titles. Chooseco is releasing a combination of revised editions and newly published titles.
Something Old…
According to Gilligan, editors went through the original series and “cherry picked” bestselling titles, books particularly beloved by readers, and staff favorites. While the plots remain intact, the texts have been “brought forward into the current day” to reflect changes in technology and in world events. In one interesting case, Montgomery’s Mystery of the Maya (originally published in 1981 and reissued in 2006) had to be revamped to acknowledge advances in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs.
Gilligan emphasizes that “art plays an important role in CYOA”; in fact, gaining creative control over the visuals was one of the reasons for founding Chooseco. While the reissued volumes retain their familiar look, the cover images and interior illustrations are all new. Gilligan is proud of the fresh graphics, which were commissioned from fine artists all over the world. Illustrators were carefully selected to make a match between artistic style and each book’s setting and tone.
Something New…
Gilligan stresses the company’s intent to “play with the CYOA paradigm” and “bring the interactive fiction medium forward into new formats,” resulting in the creation of two new series. “The Golden Path,” a three-volume “interactive epic” for teens, is set in a dystopian future and will feature longer sequences and require readers to process more information before deciding how to proceed. The storylines will continue from book to book, challenging youngsters to find the most satisfying course—or “The Golden Path.” The first title, Into the Hollow Earth, will be available in late April.
“Fabulous Terrible,” another YA series, puts readers at an elite girls’ boarding school where they encounter complicated social scenarios, supercompetitive classmates, and elements of magic. Gilligan explains that the interactivity in this open-ended “chick lit” series is geared around source materials that can be found in the books and online. Fabulous Terrible: One will be available in June. Both series feature attention-grabbing covers with loads of teen appeal. A redesign of Chooseco’s Web site will accommodate the new offerings while continuing to focus on other CYOA titles.
Chooseco hasn’t forgotten its roots: following on the heels of Montgomery’s Forecast from Stonehenge (2007), the first new CYOA adventure since 1998, the company is publishing several never-before-seen titles each year. Books in the “Choose Your Own Adventure Dragonlarks” series, intended for readers ages five through eight and illustrated with full-color artwork, are also being released.
Why It (Still) Works
Gilligan believes that there “is something universally appealing about interactivity.” The CYOA books allow middle graders to experiment with nonlinear storytelling, “a developmental step that some kids need.” Choice-points in the stories force youngsters to visualize and mull over plot possibilities, letting them take control of the reading experience. Individual volumes in this versatile series treat many different themes, take numerous approaches, and incorporate varying levels of complexity, making the titles suited to a wide audience. Sure-fire successes with reluctant readers, the books can also encourage youngsters who have the skills but have stopped short to move “past their point of resistance.” And of course, more accomplished readers love them too.
Gilligan can relay numerous tales of adults who have told her that CYOA books transformed them into readers and changed their lives; may these successes continue.
Pub Info
MONTGOMERY, Anson. The Golden Path: Into the Hollow Earth. April 2008. Tr $9.99. ISBN 978-1-933390-81-9.
MONTGOMERY, R. A. Choose Your Own Adventure #19: Forecast from Stonehenge. 2007. pap. $6.99. ISBN 978-1-933390-19-2.
_____. Choose Your Own Adventure #5: Mystery of the Maya. rev. ed. 2006. pap. $5.99. ISBN 978-1-933390-05-5.
TALBOT, Sophie. Fabulous Terrible: One. June 2008. pap. $8.99. ISBN 978-1-933390-76-5.
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