Common Sense Media Review
Quirky, inventive, and absorbing choose-your-own adventure.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
With just one choice -- chocolate or vanilla ice cream -- Jimmy is thrust into a world of puzzles, adventures, and inventions. After Jimmy picks a flavor he meets \ Professor K, who introduces Jimmy to his three unbelievable inventions: the Killitron 2000, an untested doomsday device; \ a time travelling machine that only goes back seven years in time; and \ SQUID, which transfers memories from one brain to another. As readers \ make choices for Jimmy -- sometimes as mundane as deciding whether or not to look in a \ medicine cabinet -- Jimmy moves along in many different stories \ where he uses all three of Professor K's inventions to sometimes disastrous, \ sometimes happy results.
Is It Any Good?
Through an inventive series of tabs and colored tubes, readers make their choices and skip all over this fun 80-page book -- 3,856 story combinations in all! Kids will get hooked both by the novel delivery of the "choose your own adventure" idea and the engaging series of story combinations. The colorful and comical illustrations make it an even bigger draw -- the perfect take-along on long trips.
The illustrations by Jason Shiga are endearing and quirky all at the same time. Beautiful and colorful, they really bring the exciting adventures to life. Also, when Jimmy goes to different places and time periods they are colored differently -- a great way to show readers the change in scenery and time.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Professor K's inventions. Which invention would you most like to try out if you were Jimmy: the Killitron 2000, the Time Machine or the SQUID?
On the cover of the book, it says that there are 3,856 story possibilities! How is that possible? Did you get close to reading that many of the stories? What was your favorite story and ending?
Create your own "choose your own adventure"-type story. What scenarios would make your readers go back to the beginning? Which would be the happy endings?
If you were in Jimmy's position, would you have chosen chocolate or vanilla ice cream?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Jason Shiga
- Genre : Adventure
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Amulet Books
- Publication date : March 1, 2010
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 12
- Number of pages : 80
- Last updated : July 13, 2017
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