Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books are so much fun! They allow kids to choose the outcome of the stories they read and can be a creative way to approach books and reading. I’m personally not the biggest fan but so many kids I know love these books! If your kids love choose-your-own-adventure books, they’ll love these recommendations! I’ve rounded up recommendations for younger kids and older kids/teens.
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The Best Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-Books for Kids
Here are 30+ of the best choose-your-own-adventure books:
Endlessly Ever After
Published: April 19, 2022
This choose-your-own-adventure book allows kids to choose their own endings to fractured, classic tales including Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, and more. If your kids are looking for a fascinating, laugh-out-loud choose-your-path picture book, this is the one! It’s great for kids ages 5 and up!
What Should Danny Do?
Published: May 17, 2017
This is a fun choose-your-own-adventure story for younger kids. Kids follow a boy named Danny and make choices for him throughout the day. Each choice results in a different outcome for Danny, allowing kids to expand their imaginations and basically write their own story!
Princess Adventures: This Way or That Way?
Published: January 28, 2020
When Princess Rose and Princess Josephine decide to leave their castle, Rose wants to go this way and Josephine wants to go that way. Which way do you go?
Readers will decide whether to stomp their feet in the rushing river or take a nap in the meadow; enter a dark cave or stay the course; open a castle door with cobwebs or one that wafts a sweet-smelling scent. There are many paths to take, but only two will lead the princesses to their sweet happy ending filled with friendship.
What Should Darla Do?
Published: November 26, 2019
Darla is a young and spunky astronaut-in-training. She wants to go to Mars one day, just like her favorite doll, Astronautica. But before she does, she will need to learn to navigate through relatable scenarios that so many kids face on a daily basis. Just like What Should Danny Do? this is another relatable choose-your-own-adventure book.
Once Upon A Fairy Tale
Published: June 9, 2022
Did you ever wish to feast with fairies, live in a tree, or ride a unicorn across the sun-lit sky? Here, in this magical world, you can. You can choose to be a clever princess, or a curious gingerbread man, or perhaps a gentle knight. Maybe you’ll live in a tree, or a tower on a hill. You can eat fresh-buttered sunbeams with fairies, or newt pie and pigtail pudding with ogres. Everywhere you look, you will find a new adventure. Just pick the one you like best.
Mermaid Island
Published: October 1, 2020
YOU are a magical mermaid who has lived her entire life in an underwater palace. You celebrate and protect all species under the sea. Princess Island and Prince Island, the very best royal summer camps, are right nearby. Ever since you were a little mermaid you have dreamed of leaving your underwater home and joining the land princesses. Will YOU leave your comfortable palace under the sea and teach the land princesses and princes the importance of protecting the planet and our oceans?
Princess Island
Published: December 1, 2015
Meet Princess Peregrine Yvette (aka “Princess Dirt”), who has the manners of a gentle lady but the kneecaps of a troll. Her mother plans to send her off to princess camp on Princess Island for outdoor adventure and a bit of polishing up on the royal skills, but Princess Dirt’s heart is in the wilds of nature. YOU can decide to behave like a royal or embrace the dirt within you.
Your Grandparents Are Zombies!
Published: October 1, 2010
Do you rescue Zombie Grandma from the ball pit? Or venture into the Haunted House with Zombie Grandpa? What if Grandpa eats the worms? This is a great pick for older kids in elementary school or early middle school.
The Lazarus Plan
Published: August 1, 2016
Ra’s Al Ghul plans to unleash an undead army and cleanse humanity from the earth! Can Batman follow the clues to track down the super-villain in time to stop his evil plans? Will the Dark Knight be outnumbered, or will he be able to even the odds? Can he use his high-tech gadgets or will he need to rely on his wits to stop Ra’s and save the world?
Mystery in the Mansion
Published: August 14, 2018
Carlos Serrano has never solved a mystery in his life. But when Carlos’s mom gets sick with a flu on the morning of an investigation that could save her failing detective agency, Carlos takes on the case.
With the help of his best friend, Eliza, and her wild little brother, Frank, Carlos must uncover a mystery involving an eccentric local millionaire, anonymous death threats, and a buried treasure. But with tricky riddles, cagey suspects, hidden secrets, and dozens of impossible choices, they need your help!
Can you help Carlos and his friends find the culprit and save Las Pistas Detective Agency? Or will it be case closed?
The Race to the Chimney Rock
Published: September 4, 2018
In book one of this exciting choose-your-own-trail series, it’s 1850 and your first goal is to get your family, covered wagon full of supplies, and oxen to Chimney Rock on time. But hurry—you’ll need to make it through the rugged mountains before winter snow hits. Plus, there are wild animals, natural disasters, unpredictable weather, fast-flowing rivers, strangers, and sickness that will be sure to stand between you and your destination!
Which path will get you safely across the prairie? With twenty-two possible endings, choose wrong and you’ll never make it to Chimney Rock on time. Choose right and blaze a trail that gets you closer to Oregon City!
The Legend of Grimm’s Woods
Published: September 4, 2018
Cast spells, solve puzzles, rack up sparkling stars, and train your own magical pet in this graphic novel that you can play just like a role-playing game. Enter a world inspired by favorite fairy tales, complete with gingerbread houses and a girl dressed in red. Readers can play as Hocus (a boy) or Pocus (a girl), choose a magic animal companion, and enter a colorful forest of brain-teasing riddles, magical objects, and unusual characters.
Each panel has multiple paths to follow, and a handy tracking sheet helps you keep track of your victories and hard-won possessions, bringing together the classic analog adventure of a tabletop game and the fresh format of a comic book for hours of replayable fun.
Adventuregame Comics
Published: September 13, 2022
Leviathan is set in a medieval coastal village, where residents live in fear of a giant sea creature. Your goal as a reader is simple: defeat the Leviathan! As you wander through the open world, the town’s backstory is revealed. You can attempt to visit the library to try and learn why the Leviathan destroyed it years ago. You can stop by the castle to discover the town was once riddled with crime and theft—and how that’s stopped as the Leviathan will wreak havoc on the town for the smallest misdeeds.
If you’re lucky, you may find your way to the old wizard who may possess the one thing that could keep the Leviathan at bay. But not everything is as it appears in this village. Can you discover the secrets and stop the Leviathan before it’s too late?
Escape This Book! Titanic
Published: March 19, 2019
Reader, beware! Once you open this book, there is no turning back. You will have three chances to survive the Titanic‘s fateful voyage. Decide which path to take first.
Passenger: Exploring the ship is fun! Just don’t get caught on the wrong deck when there’s an iceberg ahead!
Crew Member: You work for a family in first class. Can you persuade them to save you along with their beloved dog?
Stowaway: You snuck onto this ship. Can you draw your way onto a lifeboat?
This is such a fun choose-you-own-adventure series for middle schoolers.
The Mad Mage’s Academy
Published: September 3, 2019
You have been tasked with stealing the spell book of Halaster Blackcloak, the mad mage who controls the halls of Undermountain. The book is secreted away inside the halls of a magic academy, so you must navigate your way in by posing as a new student. But you need to move quickly in order to locate the spell book, steal it, and get away without being caught by the mad mage himself. Be on your guard, rogue.
Endangered Operation
Published: October 1, 2019
In this choose-your-own-caper story set in the world of Carmen Sandiego, you are a junior zookeeper caring for a rare newborn Amur tiger cub. VILE, in its latest plot, is stealing exotic animals to sell to a billionaire collector, and your charge is cub-napped! Carmen arrives and you decide the best way to get your cub back is to help her defeat VILE and rescue all the animals they’ve captured. Or do you?
Twenty different endings to this story keep readers coming back for more adventures with Carmen Sandiego!
Little Red Riding Hood
Published: August 1, 2015
In a battle of wits, who will win? Little Red or the Wolf? The epic struggle between the two takes some unexpected twists in this fractured retelling of the beloved fairy tale. Who do you trust? What do you do? When You Choose the path through three new versions of this fairy tale, the consequences can be chilling, surprising, or disastrous.
Escape from a Video Game
Published: September 1, 2020
Cooper Hawke and the Secret of Phantom Island is the greatest video game nobody has ever played. The treasure-hunting adventure was supposed to set a new standard for gaming. Then, just one month before its release date, it fell off the face of the earth.
Now, for the first time, you get a chance to play the mysterious game – from the inside. As you outsmart enemies, solve puzzles, and explore the island’s hidden areas, you’ll discover that there’s more to this game than the world realized.
You Are Deadpool
Published: May 30, 2018
Did you ever want to be Deadpool?! Of course you did! Well, now’s your chance – in this amazing role-playing romp! YOU decide what choices Deadpool makes! YOU keep track of your scores as the story unfolds! YOU roll dice to combat various foes – and we’re watching, so no cheating! Determine your own destiny as you travel through Marvel history as Deadpool himself…meeting the Hulk in the swinging ’60s! Smelling Man-Thing in the swampy ’70s! Looking up Daredevil in the hard-boiled ’80s! And more! Just be sure to avoid the many bad endings you could fall into…or suffer the consequences!
The Oregon Trail
Published: August 1, 2013
You’re living in the United States during the time of the Westward Expansion. Settlers are heading west on the Oregon Trail as they seek better lives. Will you: Go west with your family as part of a wagon train? Serve as a trail guide for a group of settlers? Try to cope with the changes in your way of life as a western American Indian? Everything in this book happened to real people. And YOU CHOOSE what you do next. The choices you make could lead you to opportunity, to wealth, to poverty, or even to death.
Meanwhile
Published: March 1, 2010
Celebrate 10 years of this completely original graphic novel take on a “choose your own adventure.” A boy stumbles upon the lab of a mad scientist who asks him to choose between testing a mind-reading device, a time machine, and a doomsday machine.
Using an ingenious system of tubes and tabs, readers can decide what to explore in this completely engrossing experiment in storytelling. Sometimes the page reads right to left, sometimes up and down, and sometimes jumps from beginning to end. It’s sure to appeal to kids—and comics collectors—eager for an interactive, funny read.
Can You Survive the Titanic?
Published: November 1, 2014
You are a passenger on the most spectacular ocean liner ever built the Titanic. When the ship hits an iceberg and begins to sink, its going to take more than luck to survive. Will you, Try to save lives as a member of the ships medical crew? Protect the children of your wealthy employers? Experience the disaster as a 12 year old boy with inside knowledge of the ship? FACE the life or death dilemmas of the most famous shipwreck in history. YOU CHOOSE what you’ll do next. The choices you make will either lead you to safety or to doom.
Alice Through the Looking Glass
Published: April 12, 2016
Based on events from the film Alice Through the Looking Glass, this unique illustrated novel allows readers to follow Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen and the White Queen as the characters journey through time. Each of the four characters have their own new, distinct art style to accompany their unpredictable adventures. As the readers travel along, they will be faced with choices that may turn the world-or at least the book itself-upside down.
Select Your Superpower
Published: December 3, 2021
Your new friends are in trouble and you’re the only one who can save them. Their father is a medical research scientist and has discovered a cure that can help millions of people. It has one side effect though – it gives superpowers to kids! Great, right? Maybe. Bad people will do whatever they can to get that cure and use it to take over the world.
Life as a Ninja: An Interactive History Adventure
Published: January 1, 2010
You are a ninja in feudal Japan. As a mysterious shadow warrior, you serve as a deadly soldier for hire. You use your powerful weapons and knowledge of the ancient art of ninjitsu to defend your employer to the death, if necessary. Will you: Lay siege to a heavily guarded castle? Defend your home province from a huge army? Act as a bodyguard to a powerful lord?
Pick Your Own Quest
Published: April 28, 2018
You’re trapped inside Minecraft!
You drink the wrong potion and the next thing you know, you’re inside Minecraft! Zombies and Creepers come at you from all sides. All you want to do is get home. Or wait . . . maybe you should look around for a little while first.
Can you take the right path and escape from Minecraft?
For Older Kids and Teens
Major Detours
Published: September 7, 2021
It’s the summer before college and four best friends—Amelia, Chase, Cleo, and Logan—are on the first leg of their road trip inspired by the unique tarot deck that Amelia inherited from her grandmother. However, their trip full of visiting occult shops, bonding and sightseeing, takes a major detour as the friends discover that their tarot deck is more valuable—and coveted—than they could’ve ever imagined. As the friends race to finish this mystical scavenger-hunt across the West coast and uncover the mysteries of their tarot deck, it is you who will decide where to go next and how the story will end. With four possible final and romantic endings, you will get to make actual choices to further the friends’ road trip adventure in this unique interactive novel.
Will you uncover the mysteries of the tarot deck and the legacy left behind? Will you help Amelia and Chase learn and grow? And will you unravel the secrets these friends keep from each other—and from themselves?
Choose Your Own Disaster
Published: June 19, 2018
Join Dana Schwartz on a journey revisiting all of the awful choices she made in her early twenties through the internet’s favorite method of self-knowledge: the quiz. Part-memoir, part-VERY long personality test, Choose Your Own Disaster is a manifesto about the millennial experience and modern feminism and how the easy advice of “you can be anything you want!” is actually pretty fucking difficult when there are so many possible versions of yourself it seems like you could be.
Dana has no idea who she is, but at least she knows she’s a Carrie, a Ravenclaw, a Raphael, a Belle, a former emo kid, a Twitter addict, and a millennial just trying her best.
Romeo and/or Juliet
Published: June 7, 2016
Shakespeare’s plays weren’t meant to be read. They were meant…to be played.
What if Romeo never met Juliet? What if Juliet got really buff instead of moping around all day? What if they teamed up to take over Verona with robot suits? This choose-your-own-path version of Romeo and Juliet—packed with fun puzzles, secrets, and quadrillions of possible storylines—lets you decide where the plot goes every time you read. You might play as Romeo, or as Julie
You Are A Cat!
Published: October 1, 2011
Meow, mewl and maul, only you can do it all. The original catventure book where you make the choices that pick the plot. You will need all nine lives to navigate the back alleys and dysfunctional family that takes you in. You are a cat!
Superpowered: Are You a Superhero or Supervillain?
Published: May 10, 2015
You know the superhero fantasy. What would life be like if you had superhuman abilities? But really, given the choice, would you save the world or conquer it? In SUPERPOWERED, the choice is yours.
After a bizarre experiment leaves you with one of three superpowers (play the book multiple times to explore all three!), you must ally with or confront the other two test subjects while the fate of Mercury City–nay, the world!–hangs in the balance.
There they are: 30+ of the best choose-your-own-adventure books for kids! Which of these have you read? Which ones did I miss?
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