“You are the star of this story! Choose from 20 possible endings”. Those words, printed in fine black capitals floating over a colourful title and an illustration similar to that of a poster from a circus or ancient theatre, constituted the iconic hard cover of one of the most representative literary projects for children and adolescents in the 80s and 90s.
It is Choose Your Own Adventure, a series of books in which the read must make decisions about the actions of the characters and determine the course of the story and its multiple outcomes, as if a children´s version of Julio Cortázar´s Rayuela.
Presented as a “game-book”, Choose Your Own Adventure is remembered with melancholy by lots of Uruguayans who devoted their first reads to this entertaining interactive exercise.
Three decades after its publication in Spanish-speaking countries, the Argentinean publisher Atlántida, which has started to republish some of the most renowned titles of the series since 2008, has decided to celebrate the legacy of these works by means of a contest that will prize with the complete collection and in which the Uruguayan readers may take part.
In 1984, a few years after the first publication of these innovative novels, the books arrived to Latin America through the Argentinean Publisher Atlántida and immediately became an emblem of children literature. Since 2008, the publisher has been reissuing some of the most popular titles of the series under a new format which preserves the original aesthetics.
The decision to re-launch this new compilation is based on the fact that these novels remained in the collective imagination of readers, as explained by Natalia Ginzburg, head of Editorial Department of Atlántida to El Observador.
“There is a very strong generational element of nostalgia and melancholy with the book with which many of us started to read,” mentioned Ginzburg.
The Abominable Snowman, Mystery of the Maya, Lost on the Amazon, Journey Under the Sea and Tatto of Death are some of the 15 books published by the Argentinean company, which has also published a color version of the series, aiming at a younger audience.
Ginzburg stated that back then the series was successful for its innovative interactive format which seemed avant-garde: “It appeared before the Internet and the links. It was simultaneous with videogames and the idea of ´moving on to the next level´. The book could captivate such massive movement and make the most of it,” stated the editor.
“Today, many of those readers are parents and still keep the book. They see the cover and feel touched,” added Ginzburg, who explained to that to reproduce such astonishment, these new versions have a soft and flexible cover in booklet format which preserves the same design and font of the classic cover of the 80s.
The CYOA series has explored all genres. Fantasy mystery, political thriller, science fiction and romantic novel are just some of the fields covered by the minds behind the series, Edward Packard and R.A. Montgomery.
Books are completely written in second person, a technique which is not much explored in literature, and the reader is in charge of the story and responsible for all dangers, choices, adventures and consequences to be found on their pages.
In United States, Choose Your Own Adventure is currently published by Montgomery through its publisher Chooseco. In recent interviews, Montgomery, aged 78, states that his creation is aware of new technologies and some titles can be found in new formats for e-books and tablets.
From Argentina, Ginzburg said that Editorial Atlántida is considering taking the leap to new reading platforms. Once implemented, the reader will have to decide which adventure to choose.
