Branching Out: Books for Fans of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

A choose-your-own-adventure style story with oodles of fun. The idea sounds simple enough: imagine yourself just finishing a mission to a distant planet, looking forward to getting home, when the ship’s computer detects an alien aboard. You’re stuck until the source has been found. What do you do? Which one of the other crew members, your former friends, has been transformed?

This is a plot to hook KS2 super sleuths, just like TV’s The Traitors. It requires readers to have their wits about them and to question their own values: would I, would you, stay loyal to friends, or would we focus on our own survival?

Just as there are multiple answers to such questions depending on circumstances and personalities, so there are multiple outcomes (endings) to this story, including some particularly creepy ones. In one, you get to escape and go home, in others, you too are infected. And in one (get this!) the computer… no, I won’t spoil it. Read the book! Enjoy the adventure, do the puzzles (mazes, calculations, spot the difference, etc), and follow different routes until finally you’ve exhausted all possibilities.

An interactive and immersive read to be recommended to fans of the ‘you choose’ genre, as well as to those yet to discover its attraction. One for the library and children’s own bookshelves.

How many of us remember the choose-your-own-adventure stories popular a few decades ago and find ourselves wondering why we rarely see new ones published today? Popular author Gareth P. Jones reintroduces the genre with ‘The Monster Maker’ – an imaginative detective story for readers looking for an interactive adventure, with hundreds of paths to choose from.

Haventry is a town where ghosts, zombie clowns, werewolves and vampires (amongst others) reside happily. That is, until Dr Franklefink’s Monster Maker machine is stolen and everyone becomes a suspect. It is then up to you to investigate and solve the mystery. Your detective partner and boss is none other than private investigator Klaus Solstaag, a yeti who is on a mission. Will you find the truth? What motive does your prime suspect have? Can you find the missing Monster Maker?

In this solve your own mystery story, readers will enjoy choosing which aspect of the crime to investigate next and sussing out who the real suspects are. For fans of the extraordinary and of detective mysteries, this is a must-read.

This exciting and unique book by Bear Grylls is perfect for young explorers and any children who crave adventure. Not only is it packed full of interesting survival tips which you would expect from Bear Grylls, but it also offers the reader the chance to go on their own expedition over and over again, with different adventures and outcomes.

Readers are encouraged to use their brain, adapt and think on the go, choosing their next move on their route to survival! Bear Grylls offers advice on choosing the right survival equipment, assessing the weather and terrain, finding food and shelter and understanding the animals that you might meet along the way.

Whilst we hope our children won’t ever be stranded in the mountains, forest or waters, we know that having read this book they will be well prepared for all eventualities and will have enjoyed every step of their ultimate expedition!

What a brilliant book! I had such a laugh reading this book as well as goosebumps.

Things take a sinister turn when Joe Bones spies a cloaked figure leaving his gran’s house and discovers her dead. He, of course, thinks she’s been murdered and tries to get his mother, who’s a forensic pathologist, to investigate. She’s having none of it, given Joe’s gran was over a hundred years old.

Joe and his friends discover that Joe’s gran was part of a group called Fright Club, and the town where they live (Grim) is built upon the gateways to supernatural worlds. You can visit towns where vampires, skeletons, ghosts and demons live through gateways in Grim. In this mystery, you get to choose which character’s storyline to follow. However, I read the mystery from cover to cover because I couldn’t resist, but I can imagine how exciting children will be to follow either Joe, Hal, Rose or Debbie.

I give this book a 11/10! I’m so excited to read the rest of the series, and this is going to be one of my favourite series, along with Jennifer Killick’s Dread Wood series.

A choose-your-own-adventure style story with important, contemporary themes.

Fred is due to start secondary school, and his parents have a controlling nature that doesn’t allow him to be himself – he is often incapable of making even small decisions about his life. They all visit two prospective secondary schools. On his first day, two different school buses pull up to the stop. This becomes the first point at which the reader influences the story as Fred asks which bus he should catch; the two decisions lead to different pages in the story.

Depending on the choices made, there are alternative routes through the book, and various characters are introduced at the two locations. There are eight possible endings, and the length of the whole story depends on the decisions made. It is perfect for year 6 and transitions in general. It emphasises the importance of making good choices and taking responsibility for your actions.