You Are a Shark (Choose Your Own Adventure, No. 45)
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 8/26/2011
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 8/26/2011 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I'm fond of choose-your-own-path books, and pounced on this one at the local library's book-sale (for a mere quarter, yet). Here, you get to choose to be different types of animals, so this should be a perfect release for the upcoming You're Such An Animal release challenge...
Later: Definitely an interesting twist on the choose-your-own concept! This book features strong elements of fate or karma, with facts about animal life and behavior, and more than a few comments on conservation and endangered species. But the best bit is that you get to be all these different creatures! The premise: you've stumbled onto a mysterious temple while hiking in Nepal (we've all been there, right? {grin}), and despite the nasty feeling you get from the dragon-monster statue guarding the entrance, you go in anyway - and then sink to the floor, helpless, next to the monk who's praying inside. He informs you that to have any chance of leaving the temple, "You must first be one animal, then another, then another, and sometimes the same one again. Time may seem to go in circles. You may remember your human existence or forget it in an instant." You ask what happens if you die in animal form, and the monk replies, "If you die as an animal, you die as an animal. What is important is that you live as one. For now it is the only way you can live."
Cool beginning, eh? The choices in this book are either of the form "which kind of creature do you want to be" or, once you're already an animal, which actions you want to take. Sometimes you change to another shape without making any choices; other times you find yourself back in the temple, with new criteria to send you out into the animal world again. Some choices end in death as an animal, and some in death as a human - but even that may not be the end...
I enjoyed the different animal lives, which ranged from sea creatures large and small to household pets, from working animals to those raised for food, from eagles to insects, with the pleasures, challenges, and hazards of each. It's a good way to look at life from many different sides, and while some of the more gruesome deaths might be upsetting to some readers, I think the book's one of the better and more worthwhile "choose your own" books I've seen.
Later: Definitely an interesting twist on the choose-your-own concept! This book features strong elements of fate or karma, with facts about animal life and behavior, and more than a few comments on conservation and endangered species. But the best bit is that you get to be all these different creatures! The premise: you've stumbled onto a mysterious temple while hiking in Nepal (we've all been there, right? {grin}), and despite the nasty feeling you get from the dragon-monster statue guarding the entrance, you go in anyway - and then sink to the floor, helpless, next to the monk who's praying inside. He informs you that to have any chance of leaving the temple, "You must first be one animal, then another, then another, and sometimes the same one again. Time may seem to go in circles. You may remember your human existence or forget it in an instant." You ask what happens if you die in animal form, and the monk replies, "If you die as an animal, you die as an animal. What is important is that you live as one. For now it is the only way you can live."
Cool beginning, eh? The choices in this book are either of the form "which kind of creature do you want to be" or, once you're already an animal, which actions you want to take. Sometimes you change to another shape without making any choices; other times you find yourself back in the temple, with new criteria to send you out into the animal world again. Some choices end in death as an animal, and some in death as a human - but even that may not be the end...
I enjoyed the different animal lives, which ranged from sea creatures large and small to household pets, from working animals to those raised for food, from eagles to insects, with the pleasures, challenges, and hazards of each. It's a good way to look at life from many different sides, and while some of the more gruesome deaths might be upsetting to some readers, I think the book's one of the better and more worthwhile "choose your own" books I've seen.
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Benson Park in Hudson, New Hampshire USA on Friday, September 2, 2011
GoryDetails at Benson Park in Hudson, New Hampshire USA on Friday, September 2, 2011
I left this book in Benson Park, the lovely, recently-renovated park that was formerly Benson's Animal Farm, inside the map-dispenser in the kiosk at the park-entrance parking lot. Hope the finder enjoys it!*** Released as part of Secretariat's 2011 September You're Such an Animal release challenge. ***
