77. Your Very Own Robot Goes Cuckoo-Bananas!

Your Very Own Robot Goes Cuckoo-Bananas! by R.A. Montgomery & Shannon Gilligan. Illustrated by Keith Newton (Canada) - (USA)
Choose Your Own Adventure (Dragonlark) series

Pages: 57 pages
Ages: 5+
Finished: May 5, 2010
First Published: 2009
Publisher: Chooseco
Genre: Children, humour, adventure
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

"Sweetheart, I have to go next door for five minutes," your mom says.

Acquired: Won a copy from the publisher.

Reason for Reading: Read aloud to my ds.

This book is the new generation of what used to be the Bantam Skylark versions of the Choose Your Own Adventures. The ones your little brother or sister would read when they saw how much fun you were having with your own CYOAs. Now with a whole new look, and apparently a new CYOA publishing company no longer associated with Bantam (from what I can tell on site) these younger versions are in full colour, almost square in size, have nice large writing and are suitable for beginning readers. While recommended for ages 5-8, I found nothing that would be off-putting for an older reluctant reader. My son is 9 and has learning disabilities and just loved me reading this book to him as it is beyond his reading abilities at the moment. In fact I read it to him three times, with different endings and it has now moved over to his bedside table where Dad will get a few turns reading more possible endings.

He enjoyed each ending, whether it was good or bad, and just thought the whole book was a riot; this being his first exposure to CYOAs. We'll definitely be on the look out for more of these Dragonlarks. I'm very pleased with the new presentation and the return of the original authors. These books have a lot of potential to get kids turned on to reading.

The story in this one revolves around a robot that YOU made from scrap parts leftover in your parent's lab but he's always coming up with goofy ideas that get both of you in trouble. Today while your parents are away, you've been warned this is the last chance. No problems or it's the garbage heap for Gus the Robot. Gus is not afraid of parent warnings, though.

PS - normally I wouldn't have counted this book in my number tally, but after reading it three times straight from the beginning I made an executive decision and counted it.