You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘History’s Kid Heroes’ category.
The School Library Journal recently reviewed Detective Frankenstein by Alaya Johnson and Yuko Ota, book 17 in the Twisted Journeys series. In addition to their review, they offered some history on the interactive genre known as gamebooks. this piqued my interest, so I went searching for more information.
Did you know there are three types of gamebooks: the branching-plot novel, the role-playing game solitaire adventure, and the adventure gamebook? The branching plot novel is usually written in the second person and requires the reader to make choices. Otherwise, it is similar to a typical novel. Twisted Journeys is an example of this kind of gamebook. To learn more, visit gamebooks.org.
Choose Your own Adventure books were first published out of Vermont in 1976, but they weren’t the first gamebook. In the late fifties interactive books were used as learning tools. These books could be used in the absence of a teacher by directed the student to certain pages depending on how they answered multiple choice questions (correct answers would direct the student to the next question, incorrect answers would direct them to review pages).
Here is a small portion of what the School Library Journal had to say about Detective Frankenstein:
“Johnson has provided over a dozen possible outcomes for the story, encouraging kids to re-read the book until they achieve their desired ending. For reluctant readers, the stories’ length and hybrid format may help overcome resistance to the idea of sitting down with a book for fun. Best of all, the stories are just spooky enough to engage the imagination, but not so gory or grim as to be genuinely upsetting. Recommended for readers in grades 2-5.”
Read the full review on Good Comics for Kids.
Robyn Chapman here, editorial assistant at Graphic Universe. Like the rest of New York, my neighborhood was hit hard by the blizzard. Here was the view outside my Brooklyn apartment yesterday morning.
Blizzard or not, I had to venture out. I am cat-sitting for several families in Queens, and those cats were hungry. I made it to Queens, but I sure could have used a pair of snowshoes!
Our storm might have been nasty, but it can’t compare to the Great Blizzard of 1888, one of the most severe blizzards in America’s recorded history. Snowfalls in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts ranged from 40-50 inches. Winds of over 45 miles per hour created huge snow drifts (imagine a snow drift over 50 feet high!) Tragically, over 400 people died.
The Snowshoeing Adventure of Milton Daub, Blizzard Trekker tells the story of a real-life 12-year old who braved the Great Blizzard of 1888. With the aid of some homemade snowshoes, he traversed the snow in his Bronx neighborhood. He went out seeking milk for his family, and ended up delivering groceries and medicine to several neighbors. It’s a great story to share with your children on a cold winter night.
