Choose Your Own Adventure

The year is 1981 (or so.) A young Desdichado is selected for the STEP program at his local elementary school in a modest-sized central Texas town where he grew up. I no longer remember what the acronym was supposed to stand for, but it was the "gifted and talented" program that the school district was trying to get off the ground. I don't know what, exactly, young Desdichado's teachers thought were his gifts and talents, but what that seems to have meant is that school was relatively easy for me, I was frequently bored and thus spent time doodling or reading in class. And young Desdichado was certainly a reader; he was a curious kid who's mind was often on more exciting things than what was actually going on around him.

I was a kid who loved the classic "Boys Adventure Tale" type story, and the more strange and exotic the better. I loved fantasy, dragons, dinosaurs, space opera, outer space, and all that jazz. Library day was my favorite day of the week at school. At Henderson Elementary school, there were three classes per grade of about 30 or so kids each class, and from that pool, somewhere between a dozen and dozen and a half kids were put into this STEP program. I think it was mostly an effort to give them something to do that was more interesting than what they were otherwise doing, because clearly these kids either weren't very interested, or found school fairly easy, and the teachers thought they needed to be challenged. But I don't think, at least in the first year or two, that they had any idea what to do with us. We didn't even have a proper space to meet the first year; I remember clearly that an unused little hallway with some spare desks set up in it was where we started. And that's where I was introduced to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. A quick; "here, see if they like this" kind of thing, I suspect. I remember for a couple of weeks we were allowed to read the first 10-11 or so titles (the only ones that were out by then) as well as a couple of titles from the Which Way series. One that I particularly remember from Which Way was Sugarcane Island by Edward Packard, one of the two main authors of the Choose Your Own Adventure series. It was actually the first—the prototype, if you will—of the concept, and it has been reprinted numerous times. (I remember it mostly because of that distinction. It wasn't the best one.) In mass market format, it was first published as #6 in the Which Way book series, post-dating it's release in The Adventure of You, a small somewhat local series, and it was also re-issued as #62 in the Choose Your Own Adventure mainline series. Packard invented the concept, and was published by small press owner R. A. Montgomery. Both felt that the concept had more promise than they were able to deliver, so Montgomery beat the bushes and sold the concept to Bantam, one of the big-time publishers at the time. After landing the deal, he invited Packard, who of course created the concept, to join him in the new line. Most of the original run of the books was written by one of the two of them, although they later brought a few others on as semi-regulars to keep up with demand. 

I loved the CYOA books. I actually still own a lot of my original purchases from the early 80s, although I've lost (or sold; ah, the folly of youth!) some of the ones that I used to own. But I had the entire run up through #25 (minus one title) and I continued to buy them off and on up into the 50s or 60s. I actually even continued to buy a few more after that, but by then I was nostalgia baiting myself; I'd obviously moved on to other things most of the time by middle school, let alone high school. But because I'd had such love for the series, I still kept in touch with at least a little bit throughout the 80s. Once when I was about ten or so, I was out of school for a week with strep throat and I even tried to write one in notebook. I illustrated it and everything, and got... I dunno, a good forty or so entries written. I wish I could still find that. I probably threw it away over thirty years ago. I'm sure its terrible, but I'd be interested in seeing it again.

Because used books aren't usually too hard to track down and sell at decent rates in this day and age in which reading books is sadly kind of passé, I'm seriously considering picking up all of the ones that I lost over the years, plus one or two others that I always kinda wanted to get but for some reason never got around to, but you have to be careful! Many of these titles have been re-released in recent(ish) years with revised text, new trade dress and new illustrations. This simply won't do; I can't get that good old-fashioned Choose Your Own Adventure feel without the original art, original trade-dress, and original early 80s text. Good old big-chinned art by Paul Granger is a must!

Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm talking about this other than for some curious reason I've having a nostalgia moment about this series. I may even do reviews of the books that I have! I thought I'd make a list of what I've owned. The list is books in my current collection, but I've also included in gray text books that I used to own but no longer do (but probably will again shortly) and in green text, books that I never did own but always kind of meant to, so I will probably order them eventually too. I changed to blue titles that I've just recently ordered. When they arrive, I'll change them to normal black text. Meanwhile, those I've reviewed will get a checkmark. I'll update this post when that happens.

1. The Cave of Time by Edward Packard ✔

2. Journey Under the Sea by R. A. Montgomery ✔

3. By Balloon to the Sahara by D. Terman ✔

4. Space and Beyond by R. A. Montgomery ✔

5. The Mystery of Chimney Rock by Edward Packard ✔

6. Your Code Name is Jonah by R. A. Montgomery ✔

7. The Third Planet from Altair by Edward Packard ✔

8. Deadwood City by Edward Packard ✔

9. Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey? by Edward Packard

10. The Lost Jewels of Nabooti by R. A. Montgomery

11. Mystery of the Maya by R. A. Montgomery

12. Inside UFO 54-50 by Edward Packard

13. The Abominable Snowman by R. A. Montgomery

14. The Forbidden Castle by Edward Packard

15. House of Danger by R. A. Montgomery

16. Survival at Sea by Edward Packard

17 The Race Forever by R. A. Montgomery

18. Underground Kingdom by Edward Packard

19. Secret of the Pyramids by Richard Brightfield

20. Escape by R. A. Montgomery

21. Hyperspace by Edward Packard

22. Space Patrol by Julius Goodman

23. The Lost Tribe by Louise Munro Foley

25. Prisoner of the Ant People by R. A Montgomery

27. The Horror of High Ridge by Julius Goodman

28. Mountain Survival by Edward Packard

31. Vampire Express by Tony Koltz

33. The Dragon's Den by Richard Brightfield

37. War With the Evil Power Master by R. A Montgomery

38. Sabotage by Jay Leibold

45. You Are a Shark by Edward Packard

50. Return to the Cave of Time by Edward Packard

55. The Trumpet of Terror by Deborah Lerme Goodman

56. The Enchanted Kingdom by Ellen Kushner

57. The Antimatter Formula by Jay Leibold

71. Space Vampire by Edward Packard ✔

73. Beyond the Great Wall by Jay Leibold

86. Knights of the Round Table by Ellen Kushner

91. You Are a Superstar by Edward Packard

92. Return of the Ninja by Jay Leibold

117. The Search for Aladdin's Lamp by Jay Leibold

Going through the list of titles and cover images, I honestly almost want to add a good dozen more to the list and buy them too. I doubt I'd really enjoy having them for very long, but such is the power and draw of both the concept and some of the boy's adventure exotic pulp themes that the series was well known for. I mean, c'mon! Vampire Invaders? Moon Quest? Through the Black Hole? Ghost Train? Outlaw Gulch? The Forgotten Planet? Dinosaur Island?

Such is the draw of a sense of wonder.

Of that list, over the years I've especially missed The Race Forever and Escape, both by R. A. Montgomery. I remember thinking those were among my favorites in the series. I can't believe I let them go.

I had some other books that worked the same way, but from other series, of course. I have seven books of the Star Challenge series, but I have them in Spanish (Reto de las Galaxias) which, luckily I can read. I had a few Endless Quest books. I had the Escape from Tenopia and Escape from the Kingdom of Frome books. I had a number of the Time Machine series. And I had a few copies of books in the Which Way books series, although I read more than I had; I can't remember for sure which ones I actually owned anymore. That was an interesting sister series to Choose Your Own Adventure, since it's a follow-up by the same publisher who first published some of the Edward Packard books that later were part of the Choose Your Own Adventure series by Archer. One of them, Sugarcane Island, was the first published of any of this type of book, and it appeared (in it's third form, although first truly mass market format) as #6 in the Which Way series. It later made an appearance as #62 in the Choose Your Own Adventure series proper. And of course, there were competitors, like Scholastic's Twist-a-Plot series. But the CYOA series proper is the one that captured the public's imagination, and the ones you could readily find, and the ones that I mostly read. In general, I'd suggest that it was the best of the choice-making second person type books until more overtly game-bookish constructions, like Fighting Fantasy came out later.

And of course, I had a ton of those Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks and the TolkienQuest (later Middle-Earth Quest) books and the Lone Wolf books, which were the ones that I lingered on the most. It's kind of a shame that this format has fallen out of favor.