I have chosen to do the creative section for the final project, my idea being that I will create a choose your own adventure story that the class will act out on the day that we present our final projects. In order for it to be unique, I plan on giving the readers (in this case, the class) the option of creating their own choices at some parts in the story. In order for the CYOA to be as organized as possible though, I'm going to ask the class to be one whole coherent unit, as opposed to everyone in the class acting on their own.

I haven't decided a specific plot yet, but I'm working on it. Two ideas that I've come up in my head are that the story takes place on campus and that the protagonist is a student here, and the story would be through his/her eyes. The other idea is once again on campus, but the campus has been overtaken by zombies and the student is the only one left, as far as he knows.

Think back to when you were back in grade school. For English, your teachers ALWAYS gave you the absolute worst reading assignments. But, at least for me, one thing that made kids excited was the ability to go to the library and choose their own books - and quite often, we'd take a look over at the "Goosebumps" brand Choose Your Own Adventures. Many people still have fond memories of those books to this day, and honestly, who can blame them?

Now, my question is, why have most teachers not caught onto this yet? Why not give the kids a chance to analyze and study these books they love so much? I mean, just look at what our class has done, and we're in college! It's not too far fetched to think that maybe taking a more hands-on and entertaining approach to reading assignments may benefit the kids being taught now. I mean, I know I would assign Goosebumps "Night of the Werewolf" over some of the stuff they're reading nowadays.

The Choose Your Own Adventure book that I am analyzing is The Magician's Ring by Carol Gaskin.  In it, you are a minstrel who knows the art of song and dance, and you travel as a living.  Eventually, you find yourself in Wandelmere, a kingdom that is very odd.  In the day time, all the inhabitants are animals, but once night rolls around, the animals turn into the citizens of the kingdom.  Even the royalty are plagued by this curse set upon them by the wizard known as Mevar, so the King asks you to aid them in their time of need by seeking out Mevar and destroying his magical ring.

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Written in the form of a second-person point of view, the book “Nightmare Store” starts off the story telling you that you are from a small town in Mississippi visiting your Aunt & Uncle in Atlanta. It never gives away the gender of the main character because of the pre-tense that anyone can “choose their own adventure”. Since both Uncle Jerry and Aunt Louise will be out that evening, Uncle Jerry suggests you go shopping at “Wallenberg's”, the new department store. While in the television section, you dose off and fall asleep. This is where the story truly begins.

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For this “Choose Your Own Adventure” assignment, the book entitled “Deadwood City” was analyzed. In this story, the reader takes the role of an individual in the “Wild West” of the late 1800s in America. At the opening of the book, the reader is told that they had just arrived on horseback to Deadwood City–a town that does not seem particularly active, nor friendly. After going deeper into to the town, the first “choice” of the adventure is presented: Will the reader take their chances at the hotel, the saloon, or the sheriffs office? Once this choice is made, the story unfolds, often culminating with such events as encounter with Indians, shoot-outs with bandits, and other such exciting occurrences associated with the Old West. Though at times flawed, often due to the reusing of preexisting scenarios, the book is an enjoyable read, and truly embraces is “Choose Your Own Adventure” heritage, though it lacks a path which results in an encounter with extraterrestrials.

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My book for the Choose Your Own Adventure project is called Escape From Tenopia. It is not necessarily of the Choose Your Own Adventure brand, but it was written by the same guy and it still allows the reader to choose his or her own path. What’s the difference then? My book only has one ending. No matter what you do – walk through a jungle of giant, man-eating spiders, get captured and enslaved fifteen thousand times by the half-human aliens called crogocides, skip carelessly around the base of an active volcano – you cannot die. You cannot fail. In fact, the only injury I managed to sustain was a small nip from a piranha-like fish. You just keep wandering the island until you reach your goal – a hidden village named Zindor. It took me two days to read this book because I kept getting captured and sent back to page seven – the mine on the opposite side of the island from where I was trying to get. Then, once I got captured and I finally got enslaved in the mine almost on the correct side of the island until my captors decided that it was time to send me to the other mine because that one didn’t have enough workers.

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