As a once-rabid collector of Bantam's "Choose Your Own Adventure" series, as well as their "Choose Your Own Adventure Jr." series, I was stoked to discover Demian Katz' insanely detailed inventory of all CYOA and all CYOA Jr. titles, complete with pub dates, chronologies, brief reviews and, most importantly, high-res cover images! Although I haven't cracked the spine of a CYOA in at least fifteen years, I have no doubt that they still contain some very good for-hire grade writing. Remember debating the relative merits of authors Edward Packard, R.A. Montgomery, Susan Saunders (totally UNSUNG), Shannon Gilligan, and Louise Munro Foley? How about illustrators Paul Granger, Lorna Tomei, Don Hedin, and Ralph Reese?
One thing I DO NOT remember about the CYOA series was their commitment to tackling such hot button historical topics as slavery and the Holocaust, or contemporary issues like South African apartheid and global terrorism.
I think as a kid I would've appreciated the literalism of the cover for "The Underground Railroad", as it took me many years to understand that the Underground Railroad didn't, you know, actually have tracks. Plus at that age (7 or 8) I had many perverse fantasies of being thrown back into the slaveholding South or the civil rights era so I could wow everybody with how nice I was to black people. In these fantasies, after stopping a lynching or making an impassioned speech for equal rights, I think I was typically rewarded for my efforts with a kiss or more from a pretty black lady like the Baby Mama in this cover image. I think this book would've provided lots of grist for my white-savior complex.
Don't you think it's time for a new CYOA series, addressing the hot topics of OUR DAY? Such as, for example, the unlimited expansion of executive power, widespread corporate surveillance, Guantanamo, and tranny bathrooms?
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