Tenopia Island #1

Having been interested in adventure stories and the Choose your own Adventure series as a child, I picked up this book. What a great book - it combines elements of adventure, strange folk, and critical thinking/decision making. It's also virtually non-linear, making the reread value of this book high. I loved the fact that one could read this book, encountering so many different people and places, for days without getting bored or to the book's ending. I consider this the best of the Escape series, but the other three books aren't without their charm.Whether one book, two books or the whole Escape series, this makes an excellent present for any child book-lover.

This is a great adventure book. I grew up with "Choose your own adventure" books. But the 'Escape' series was always my favorite. Instead of the usual pick from two or three questions and go to this page you actually have to travel around the Island of Tenopia with the help of a map decoder to find your way out. The coolest feature of this book is that if you happen to go to the same place twice something different happens. You might get new clues or helpful information the second time around. Basically this book feeds your imagination and it is very, very fun.

The style of this book makes a gem if you can find it. The regular choose your own adventure style has about 100- 180 pgs. and 10- 12 endings, some good (happily ever after) and some bad (you were eaten, thanks for playing) in regular choose your own adventure, you may only visit a page once and then make a choice out of two to three different pages. The book by Edward packard, however lets you visit a place more than once in your journey [each page represents a different place on the island of tenopia] when you reach a page it asks whether or not you have been here before. this allows you to ask people you met last time for any more information that they have learned in the time you were gone. This book has a great story-line and ends with you finding your way to the next book in the series.