24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Didn't Work for Us - a review of "Your Very Own Robot", April 1, 2008
This review is from: Your Very Own Robot (Choose Your Own Adventure - Dragonlark) (Paperback)
If you aren't acquainted with the format, the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books promise some extra fun by allowing readers the chance to make some decisions and take the story line down one path or another.
In the case of this book there are twelve possible endings. Unfortunately quite a few of them are "sub-standard", even from a child's perspective. [My own sample audience is a 6 year old boy.] In one ending, for example, the robot flies into a big pile of ice cream and the president of the company charges you --you become a defacto character -- $800 dollars for the damage; while in another situation the robot leaves you having to replant a neighbors rose bushes because your robot exclaims, "SORRY! I AM NOT PROGRAMMED TO PLANT ROSE BUSHES." Don't know about you, but we didn't find it all that entertaining.
As to an official Reading Level (aka Accelerated Reading or ATOS) none is listed. But the word level is fairly advanced and at least at the 2nd Grade level. Which makes the silliness probably even less attractive since I'm assuming older children would be a bit more discriminating than than my 6 y.o. boy.
Here's an example of text from page 18 so you can judge the level for yourself:
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"Now I will try pressing your RUN button," you tell him. So you do--and off he runs.
"Terrific!" you cry, and you turn him off before he can run too far.
"Say, maybe if I let you run fast enough, you could take off, like a plane!" you say. "But, of course, I don't know how to fly a plane. So that might be dangerous."
"Besides there a lots of things we could do in the yard. We could build a fort. That might be fun."
But you keep thinking about flying. Should you try it? Or should you build the fort?
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Two Stars ::: Try this one out at the library first. The reading level is fairly sophisticated, but most of the plot endings aren't.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fun read after the typo is corrected, March 4, 2009
This review is from: Your Very Own Robot (Choose Your Own Adventure - Dragonlark) (Paperback)
It is a fun concept to make your own choices while reading a story and then re-read the story multiple times making different choices and ending up on different adventures. The stories are simple but a fun read for my five year old. There was some frustration with missed opportunities and confusing connections until we figured out that on page 43 where it says "Turn to page 11" it should have been page 12.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The awesome kid with a "pet robot!", June 28, 2006
For a children's book, this is well done. Not every ending is pleasing, and a few of the bad endings are written to sound like nothing too bad is happening, but reasoning will tell you that that particular adventure was not such a good one to experience such as the ending where you end up in "robot land" for the rest of your life and are treated as the only robot with robots ruling the land instead. There are many fun scenarios and endings such as when you dive into a pool of strawberry ice cream, or the first ending I got, riding my robot to Venus and back in time for dinner. The front cover shows lightning, pirates, and a whale, and those are just several adventures you could end up on. There is one ending where you end up in jail for the rest of your life, and that one didn't really fit as well with the context of the situation. If you're looking for something fun, but not over the top corny for your 7 - 10 year old or so, this is worth considering.
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