Choose Your Own Adventure
Encyclopedia
Choose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's gamebook
s 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 on 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 was one of the most popular children's series during the 1980s and 1990s, selling over 250 million copies between 1979 and 1998.
Packard soon developed this basic premise into a manuscript titled The Adventures of You on Sugar Cane Island. He set out in 1970 in order to find a publisher, but was rejected by nine different 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 8000 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 for the books. After some discussion, Montgomery was able to make a contract for the series with Bantam Books
. Packard and Montgomery were both selected to write books for the series, including the contracting out of titles to additional authors.
The series was highly successful after it began printing with Bantam Books, helped by the sales campaign of giving thousands of copies of the books out to kids for free. It prompted the creation of three other series by different authors with Bantam Books that worked with the same format. Nineteen other series of the same format also began being published by rival publishing houses. The large popularity of the concept led to the titling of a new genre of writing for the format, which was called interactive fiction
.
Gamebook
A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages...
s where each story is written from a second-person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
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 on a concept created by Edward Packard
Edward Packard
Edward Packard is an American author, in addition to his work as a lawyer, essayist, and poet. He was born in Huntington, New York. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School...
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 was one of the most popular children's series during the 1980s and 1990s, selling over 250 million copies between 1979 and 1998.
Format
Originally created for 10 to 14 year olds, the books are formatted so that, after a couple of pages of reading, the "reader faces two or three options, each of which leads to more options and then to one of about 40 endings."History
According to Packard, the core idea for the series emerged from bedtime stories that he told to his daughters every night, revolving around a character named Pete and his adventures. Packard stated, "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 in order to find a publisher, but was rejected by nine different 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 8000 copies, a large amount for a small local publishing house. The series was later marketed to Pocket Books
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...
, where it also sold well, but Montgomery believed that it would sell better if a bigger publisher could be found for the books. After some discussion, Montgomery was able to make a contract for the series with Bantam Books
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
. Packard and Montgomery were both selected to write books for the series, including the contracting out of titles to additional authors.
The series was highly successful after it began printing with Bantam Books, helped by the sales campaign of giving thousands of copies of the books out to kids for free. It prompted the creation of three other series by different authors with Bantam Books that worked with the same format. Nineteen other series of the same format also began being published by rival publishing houses. The large popularity of the concept led to the titling of a new genre of writing for the format, which was called interactive fiction
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
.
See also
- List of Choose Your Own Adventure books
- Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable SnowmanChoose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable SnowmanChoose Your Own Adventure The Abominable Snowman is a 2006 animated interactive DVD movie, based on the Choose Your Own Adventure gamebook of the same name by R. A. Montgomery. Viewers make choices every 3–6 minutes using their DVD player remote control to determine what happens...