To follow the Yeti’s footprints--turn to page 9
This week I am feeling a bit nostalgic. Maybe it’s because of Ben’s post featuring Goodnight Moon, one of my favorite classic children’s books, or maybe it’s because my niece has officially stepped into the wonderful world of third grade. Oh the third grade--the year of multiplication and division, fractions, and computer games like The Oregon Trail (although my childhood memories look a little more like this) and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.
In any case, thinking of childhood always brings me such fond memories about all the games and books I loved as a child. Legos were a big hit in my house, as well as Tangram Puzzles and R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series, but the one thing that always stood out for me was the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. These interactive children’s books were cleverly written so that the reader would assume the role of the main character by determining how the plot would unfold. For example, if you chose to follow the spies into the abandoned warehouse, you would turn to page 4; if you listened to the stool pigeon and headed for the piers, you would instead turn to page 52--the story could turn out in any number of ways.
With a bit of research I’ve discovered that a company called Lean Forward Media has began producing a DVD TV game version of my beloved Choose Your Own Adventure books, beginning with The Abominable Snowman. I am tempted to get myself my niece a copy of the interactive movie, but part of me thinks that using a remote control to determine whether I’ve triumphed over giant squids by choosing to dive into the underwater cavern is not as satisfying as flipping through the pages of an actual book--skillfully cheating by using my finger as a placeholder in case the ending I chose was not to my liking. Call me old fashioned.