The Enchanted Kingdom

Choose Your Own Adventure #56

by Ellen Kushner, Judith Mitchell (Illustrator)

You've discovered an enchanted realm! You're visiting your aunt in England. One day you leave her cottage to go exploring and discover a mysterious cluster of hills. You decide to return that night to secretly investigate them. When you get there, you're amazed to see a crowd of strange, beautiful people dancing in the moonlight. You've stumbled upon the court of the Fair Folk from Elfland.

Genres: Choose Your Own Adventure, Fantasy, Childrens, Gamebooks

113 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Ellen Kushner weaves together multiple careers as a writer, radio host, teacher, performer and public speaker.

A graduate of Barnard College, she also attended Bryn Mawr College, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She began her career in publishing as a fiction editor in New York City, but left to write her first novel Swordspoint, which has become a cult classic, hailed as the progenitor of the “mannerpunk” (or “Fantasy of Manners”) school of urban fantasy. Swordspoint was followed by Thomas the Rhymer (World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award), and two more novels in her “Riverside” series. In 2015, Thomas the Rhymer was published in the UK as part of the Gollancz “Fantasy Masterworks” line.

In addition, her short fiction appears regularly in numerous anthologies. Her stories have been translated into a wide variety of languages, including Japanese, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Latvian and Finnish.

Upon moving to Boston, she became a radio host for WGBH-FM. In 1996, she created Sound & Spirit, PRI’s award-winning national public radio series. With Ellen as host and writer, the program aired nationally until 2010; many of the original shows can now be heard archived online.

As a live stage performer, her solo spoken word works include Esther: the Feast of Masks, and The Golden Dreydl: a Klezmer ‘Nutcracker’ for Chanukah (with Shirim Klezmer Orchestra). In 2008, Vital Theatre commissioned her to script a full-scale theatrical version. The Klezmer Nutcracker played to sold-out audiences in New York City, with Kushner in the role of the magical Tante Miriam.

In 2012, Kushner entered the world of audiobooks, narrating and co-producing “illuminated” versions of all three of the “Riverside” novels with SueMedia Productions for Neil Gaiman Presents at Audible.com—and winning a 2013 Audie Award for Swordspoint.

Other recent projects include the urban fantasy anthology Welcome to Bordertown (co-edited with Holly Black), and The Witches of Lublin, a musical audio drama written with Elizabeth Schwartz and Yale Strom (which one Gabriel, Gracie and Wilbur Awards in 2012). In 2015 she contributed to and oversaw the creation of the online Riverside series prequel Tremontaine for Serial Box with collaborators Joel Derfner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Racheline Maltese and Patty Bryant.

A dauntless traveler, Ellen Kushner has been a guest of honor at conventions all over the world. She regularly teaches writing at the prestigious Clarion Workshop and the Hollins University Graduate Program in Children’s Literature.

Ellen Kushner is a co-founder and past president of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, an organization supporting work that falls between genre categories. She lives in New York City with author and educator Delia Sherman, a lot of books, airplane and theater ticket stubs, and no cats whatsoever.

Reviews

[Jason Koivu · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a heavy few days, so I needed to regain a little of that innocence lost, which led me to this delightful volume in the Choose Your Own Adventure series.

In The Enchanted Kingdom I'm not sure if you're supposed to be playing an undeveloped girl or a pretty Pakistani boy, so it must suffice to say you are a nameless and sexless kid, who is visiting your Aunt Grace in the magical land of "England." In a place called The Downs you find standing stones and rumors of fairies (that's the spelling this book uses.) It's time to investigate!

1) In my first adventure I ask Aunt Grace what this nonsense is with her putting out milk for "the Little People." The old wingnut isn't very forthcoming with the answers. That night I spy fairies drinking the milk and I get severely pinched for it.

2) Take two. At the village library I discover there may be treasure within the mysterious mounds nearby. While digging in said mounds I get pinched again...pinched by a bobby, that is, for digging what's not to be dug.

3) I go ask an old, blue-haired dumpling at the sweets shop about these fairy rumors. I doubt the aged pork roll's rantings and regardless of warnings to stay clear as well as the many illustrations done with flair by Judith Mitchell depicting fairies through out the book, I march off to prove fairies don't exist. Low and behold, they do. So I get down and boogie with them. Then I black out and wake up w/a squirrel trying to get me to eat its nuts. I agree, but don't swallow, and then end up shot in the chest by a fairy arrow. Let that be a lesson to me!

4) This time the King Fairy gets me drunk and takes me into the woods...but I swear nothing happened! I fight off some ghouls w/a plastic knife, saving a fairy and thus making friends with the fairy folk. Huzzah!

5) Went on a Wild Hunt w/the king. We chase the ghosts of bad dead people. I find enough hidden gold to make me and Auntie rich. Note: Fairy steeds look like My Little Ponies.

6) I go to a castle with the Fairy Queen. A bit of insincere flattery gets me sent to the silver mines. In the caves I meet a sort of resistance group led by a woman named Nyala (who I instantly trust because Nyala is the name of my favorite Ethiopian restaurant in Los Angeles and it is delicious!. SUPER SAD EDITOR'S NOTE: Nyala has closed for business.) We find some magical caves and I live an unending life as leader of the free slaves of Elfland.

7) I join the Fairy Queen on a Halloween parade, but discover that I am to be made a sacrifice. Luckily this butch Pippy-Lockstockings of a girl from Minnesota saves my ass by hugging-it-out. Relationship Status: It's complicated.

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ellen Kushner had only five entries in the original Choose Your Own Adventure series, but she has a knack for spinning yarns of fairy lore. The Enchanted Kingdom begins with you on a European vacation to visit your aunt Grace in the Downs, a rural part of England with much character and history. You soon become curious why Aunt Grace places a saucer of milk outside the front door every night; after all, she has no pets. One day you take a walk through the grassy hills of the Downs and come upon seven massive gray stones in a circle. An elderly shepherd tells you the Standing Stones are where the Fair Folk—fairies—have their fun on Dancing Night, and he warns you against lingering when they are around. He recommends you speak to Bessy Turner, proprietor of the village sweetshop, if you have further questions. But might it be simpler to ask Aunt Grace?

Your aunt admits the milk she leaves out is for the Fair Folk, but cautions against bothering them. If you spy on the saucer overnight, you'll earn you some amusing interactions with these fairies. If you instead stake out the Standing Stones, you find yourself in the midst of a wild Fair Folk celebration, but are unable to stay hidden long. You are now their prisoner in Elfland. Earn the king's trust and you could end up on a rescue mission into the Iron Mountains after his son, abducted by ghouls. Don't be overly bold in your pursuit, for your understanding of Fair Folk enchantment is new. If you go on the king's Wild Hunt to torture ghosts who were evil men in life, you may meet your distant cousin Morton Moreton...a happenstance that could lead to disaster, or fame and fortune.

A longer story branch leads you either to the king's woods or queen's castle, each of which unlocks many adventures. The queen is a hard and flighty woman, a captive human named Morgan the Harper secretly tells you. You can inform the queen of Morgan's unflattering words, but she has no intention of allowing your return home, at least not before the Halloween festival. There are portals to your home world around Elfland, which could give safe passage to your former life. Do you trust the queen to release you after Halloween, or do you need a plan to outsmart her magic? Can you rely on Morgan the Harper not to double-cross you? How about Janet, the Minnesota farm girl you meet when you accidentally travel through a portal to your home world? Courage and good sense is essential to escape Elfland. If you anger the queen she may sentence you to life as a slave in the silver mines, a place so menacing that miners gulp down a concoction called the Brew to anesthetize their minds against its horrors. Will you drink the Brew, or join a small resistance force of human miners determined to find their way back to Earth? These smart, gutsy people provide good companionship even if you never get out of Elfland, but is any comfort worth giving up the hope of home?

Perhaps you originally asked Bessy Turner, not Aunt Grace, about the Standing Stones. Bessy talks about treasure in the burial mounds near the circle of stones, and you could go to the village library and learn more. If you take your shovel and head to the mounds at night, you'll irritate spiritual powers that would rather you not poke around these ancient graves; however, digging during the day creates its own issues. You meet a kid named Robin Goodfellow who promises treasure beyond anything in these mounds, but do you have faith he'll steer you in the right direction? The truth is, as soon as Robin Goodfellow pops up on the scene you're not going to reach a positive ending, but at least this run-in with the Fair Folk isn't a threat to your life or freedom.

The Enchanted Kingdom is better than average for Choose Your Own Adventure. There's a variety of story options, and some are drilled down into deeply enough to hit a rich philosophical vein or two. My favorite scenario is your captivity in the silver mines, where you're faced with some rough choices. Should you chug the Brew, guaranteeing you won't feel the trauma of lifelong enslavement in this dark place, but dooming yourself to never be free again? Or should you resist to your final breath, convinced there's no substitute for liberty? Ellen Kushner's language is by turns devious and lovely, offering some of the better moments in series history. Judith Mitchell's involvement is another of this book's strengths; she adds a dozen or two stunning illustrations, ranging from gorgeously detailed to unexpectedly macabre. I'll rate The Enchanted Kingdom two and a half stars, and it wasn't far from three. If the themes were a bit stronger or the action more visceral, this could stand among the finest Choose Your Own Adventures.

[Dominique Liongson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite reads way before I entered secondary school. Reading THE ENCHANTED KINGDOM book gave me a different high (than high school ever gave me). I had lots of choices of adventures. I read some more to get myself some happy endings. Lots of adventures with different kinds of folklore characters made real to the lead character of the book-- the reader!
I wonder if the Choose Your Own Adventure series creates more books. This series of books from the 80's are the best to grow up with.

[Bracicot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot how much fun these are, and how ruthless. This one is by the amazing Ellen Kushner. Splendid!

[Elle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes! I never thought I would be glad to be turned into a squirrel - at least I survived. Some other options were death by archer, burned as a sacrifice or being a skeleton in a bed. Best quote: “when a giant, black, talking squirrel gives an order, you obey it.” Hahaha!

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter sent me this (not sure why), but I’ll read almost anything. But ‘choose your own’s’ are very odd and can be awkward to read if you don’t use some kind of organization method.

A young boy visits his aunt in England and gets caught up in the intrigues of the fae.

[Swankivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was probably the most memorable Choose Your Own Adventure book I read as a kid, if I'm matching up the title and my memory correctly. And that is of course because I was then and am now predisposed to liking books that involve fairies, and this was the very first time I'd ever read a book in which the fair folk were hinted or shown to be NOT VERY NICE. I hadn't realized there was a dark side to the fae and hadn't read the British legends yet, and some of the endings scared the snot out of me. I was very disturbed by threats of being made to dance until I died, and really gobsmacked by an ending where I was treated super nicely and decorated with flowers and jewelry, only to wake up DEAD in my bed (no kidding; an illustration pictured a skeleton in bed, wearing all the decorations I'd worn in that plot line). I believe there was even a horrible ending in which the concept of time going faster in the fairy world manifested in me and a companion returning to our world only to see the companion crumble into dust and I became ancient within minutes.

[Julie Decker · Rating 3 out of 5]

What would happen if the fairy legends were true? You could end up trapped in fairyland, or be cursed by their magic, or find fast friends who may not really be your friends . . . you never know what might happen when you cross into the other realm. . . .

As a kid, this was the first book I'd read about fairies that went into their possible dark nature. I found out later that many folk tales depict fairies as out to get humans, operating by a different moral code, and this book had all the eeriness of that. The endings were generally pretty bad. You could die arbitrarily because you ate the wrong food. You could wake up dead in your bed. You could be sent back to your world with years of your life stolen from you. You could be enchanted to dance until you died. This book is not for the faint of heart, and even felt a little cruel sometimes, but I was oddly fascinated by it as a kid.

[Aegelis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wildly imaginative journey from a typical family visit to a world of unseen creatures. Twists and turns along the way have you wondering if you'll survive, let alone thrive from decisions in a land of fairies, elves, ghouls, and whatever else may lurk about. Choices aren't altogether easy to make. Who do you trust? What will you say? What will you do? The stakes are high, the story is up to you.

I enjoy reading through all the splits to see what my first choice is, then 2nd, 3rd, and so forth until every path is taken. Excellent writing, easy to understand, very descriptive take on various scenarios. Great to have in the "choose your own" collection.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read with a tutoring kid.

[Mikana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the choose your-own-adventure books during my early years, and believe these are a great set of books for those who are new to reading their own books.