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=                     Choose_Your_Own_Adventure                      =
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                            Introduction
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'Choose Your Own Adventure' is a series of children's gamebooks where
each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the
reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that
determine the main character's actions and the plot's outcome. The
series was based upon a concept created by Edward Packard and
originally published by Constance Cappel's and R. A. Montgomery's
Vermont Crossroads Press as the "Adventures of You" series, starting
with Packard's 'Sugarcane Island' in 1976.

'Choose Your Own Adventure', as published by Bantam Books, was one of
the most popular children's series during the 1980s and 1990s, selling
more than 250 million copies between 1979 and 1998.  The series has
been translated into 40 languages. When Bantam, now owned by Random
House, allowed the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' trademark to lapse, the
series was relaunched by Chooseco. Chooseco will begin to reissue
titles by Packard in August of 2025.


                               Format
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Originally created for 7- to 14-year-olds, the books are written in
the second person. The protagonist--that is, the reader--takes on a
role relevant to the adventure, such as a private investigator,
mountain climber, race car driver, doctor, or spy. Certain books in
the series allow readers choice of whom to take the role, for example,
in an adventure book, readers may be prompted to choose between a
climber, a hiker, or a traveler. Stories are generally gender- and
race-neutral, though in some cases, particularly in illustrations,
there is the presumption of a male reader (the target demographic
group). In some stories, the protagonist is implied to be a child,
whereas in other stories, the protagonist is an adult.

The stories are formatted so that, after a few pages of reading, the
protagonist faces two or three options, each of which leads to further
pages and further options, and so on until they arrive at one of the
many story endings. The number of endings varies from as many as 44 in
the early titles to as few as 7 in later adventures. Likewise, there
is no clear pattern among the various titles regarding the number of
pages per ending, the ratio of good to bad endings, or the reader's
progression backwards and forwards through the pages of the book. This
allows for a realistic sense of unpredictability, and leads to the
possibility of repeat readings, which is one of the distinguishing
features of the books.

As the series progressed, both Packard and Montgomery experimented
with the gamebook format, sometimes introducing unexpected twists such
as endless page loops or trick endings. Examples include the "paradise
planet" ending in 'Inside UFO 54-40', which can only be reached by
cheating or turning to the wrong page by accident. The only way out of
this is to "reset", or close the book and start over from the first
page.


                              History
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According to Packard, the core idea for the series emerged from
bedtime stories that he told to his daughters, revolving around a
character named Pete and his adventures: "I had a character named Pete
and I usually had him encountering all these different adventures on
an isolated island. But that night I was running out of things for
Pete to do, so I just asked what they would do". His two daughters
came up with different paths for the story to take and Packard thought
up an ending for each of the paths: "What really struck me was the
natural enthusiasm they had for the idea. And I thought: 'Could I
write this down?'"

Packard soon developed this basic premise into a manuscript titled
'The Adventures of You on Sugar Cane Island'. He set out in 1970 to
find a publisher but was rejected by nine publishing companies,
causing him to shelve the idea. In 1975, he was able to convince Ray
Montgomery, co-owner of Vermont Crossroads Press, to publish the book
and it sold 8,000 copies, a large amount for a small local publishing
house. The series was later marketed to Pocket Books, where it also
sold well, but Montgomery believed that it would sell better if a
bigger publisher could be found. After some discussion, Montgomery was
able to make a contract for the series with Bantam Books. Packard and
Montgomery were selected to write books for the series, including the
contracting out of titles to additional authors.

The phrase "Choose Your Own Adventure" was born when Ed Packard sold
his second and third books. Junior editor Dinah Stevenson was given
the assignment to create a jacket line that would explain this
unfamiliar narrative style to readers; for 'Deadwood City', a Western
saga, Stevenson came up with "Choose your own adventure in the Wild
West". The phrase was adapted for the next title as 'The Third Planet
from Altair: Choose your own adventure in outer space'.

The series was highly successful after it began printing with Bantam
Books. A 1981 article in 'The New York Times', followed by an
interview with Packard on 'The Today Show', provided free publicity.

By the 1990s, the series faced competition from computer games and was
in a decline. The series was discontinued in 1999, but was relaunched
by a new company, Chooseco, in 2003.

In June 2018, Z-Man Games issued a licensed co-operative board game
called 'Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger' inspired by R. A.
Montgomery's book in the series.

In January 2019, Chooseco initiated a trademark infringement legal
challenge against Netflix for the film 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch'.
Netflix settled the suit in November 2020.


                         Literary reception
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A 'Smithsonian' article criticizes the style as "formulaic" and quotes
a scholar stating that "in terms of literary quality, many of the
multiple-storyline books are true skunks".


                              See also
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* 'Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman'
* 'Endless Quest'
* 'Fighting Fantasy'
* 'Give Yourself Goosebumps'
* 'Grailquest'
* Interactive fiction
* List of 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books
* 'Lone Wolf'
* 'The Garden of Forking Paths'
* 'Twistaplot'
* Usborne 'Puzzle Adventure' series
* Visual novel


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_Your_Own_Adventure