MYSTERY/CHIMNEY/ROCK

Rating:
Summary: Empowering and fascinating journey for young readers.
Review: As a sixth grade teacher, I rarely see my students as fired up to read a novel as they are about the Choose Your Own Adventure series, especially The Mystery of Chimney Rock. They beg me to read to them and often fight over what few copies I have. Kids love to feel like they are in charge of something important and exciting, especially at the middle school age. The Mystery of Chimney Rock is consistent and doesn't contradict itself no matter how your story comes out. The circumstances the reader chooses dictate the action, not the author's manipulating the characters to influence the story. Suspenseful and nailbiting! Students feel genuinely involved and downright nervous as to whether they will live or die in the book.

Rating:
Summary: One of the genre's best
Review: Fans of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series will want to pick this one up if they ever see it in libraries or used bookstores. This is the series in its early prime, with originator Edward Packard at the helm. He creates a plausible haunted house with a somewhat original cat-and-mouse theme, some genuine terror for kids, and a fine atmosphere.

Rating:
Summary: Choose your own adventure book
Review: On your vacation in CT you notice a huge, empty stone house at the top of the hill. Some of the windows are boarded up. Some are covered with vines. The old house, known at "Chimney Rock," is so dark and gloomy that most people won't go near it.

But you are the curious type. Should you see for yourself what's inside? Your cousin urges you to go ahead.

What will you do....you choose.

Rating:
Summary: Choose your own adventure book
Review: On your vacation in CT you notice a huge, empty stone house at the top of the hill. Some of the windows are boarded up. Some are covered with vines. The old house, known at "Chimney Rock," is so dark and gloomy that most people won't go near it.

But you are the curious type. Should you see for yourself what's inside? Your cousin urges you to go ahead.

What will you do....you choose.

Rating:
Summary: Obsessed with mice
Review: When Packard wrote this book he must've been obsessed with mice. The book is full of 'em and sometimes you're one of them. During the course of this book you find yourself in an old haunted house that's inhabited by a witch. More of a "escape the curse" type of book, there are no ghosts in the story. The only evil is the witch and her cat. It's a good book if you like to read about sneaking around a house where there's a good chance that you'll either be dead or marked for life. But if it's mystery you want, look somewhere else.