Search for the Mountain Gorillas

Choose Your Own Adventure #41

by Jim Wallace, Jintanan Donploypetch (Illustrator), Suzanne Nugent (Illustrator)

Search For The Mountain Gorillas by Jim Wallace takes YOU on a research adventure through the jungles of Uganda, Africa. 9-12 year old readers will face the real-life threats to the diminishing gorilla populations; confront poachers, wild buffaloes, and snakes! Choose Your Own Adventure Search For The Mountain Gorillas is an interactive adventure book in which YOU decide what happens next. The Ugandan jungle is a dangerous place. One wrong step and it might be your last. A girl from the local village goes missing and the world's eyes are on you when the BBC shows up with a film crew to document your work. Will you find the missing girl? Can you save the mountain gorillas? Or will YOU be the one that ultimately needs saving? For readers who enjoyed other titles from the Choose Your Own Adventure series including: The Abominable Snowman R. A. Montgomery, Journey Under the Sea by R. A. Montgomery, and Space and Beyond by R. A. Montgomery.

Genres: Choose Your Own Adventure, Fiction, Gamebooks, Adventure, Childrens, Middle Grade

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Sarah B · Rating 4 out of 5]

So after reading a very bad science fiction book that was quite literally putting me to sleep I had decided to read this. And wow! It woke me right up! I felt I was in the jungle going on an adventure. And this certainly makes me remember reading these as a kid. But now I am better able to make the choices.

So I "played" this game 5 times. And I was lucky enough that each time I got a good ending. By good I mean I didn't die. Because you know you certainly can die in these.

So here is a brief record of my trip with the gorillas:

#1. I rescued a very young lost girl in the jungle. Its always good to rescue or help people.

#2. This was the hardest decision I faced in this book, on page 108. The choice was to either interfere with two different silverbacks (one was a strange one from outside the group) who wanted to fight each other. And there was the threat that the strange gorilla could kill a baby. I felt very unprepared to make this decision. Mainly because I don't know anything about gorillas.. I know about horses but not gorillas. And these are wild gorillas. So should humans chase the strange one away or do you let nature decide?? Very tough...

#3. I saved a baby gorilla from poachers.

#4. I found and helped a lost film crew from BBC.

#5. I had a very close encounter with a male gorilla. Luckily I chose the right answer. (Although I did check out the other two answers later and one of them ended in disaster).

Mainly I found myself relying on logic and what I know about animals in general to make these choices.

So why not 5 stars? Well I have flipped through the pages of the book and I see leopards drawn in many pages. But since these stories are not linear (from page 4 to 5, from 5 to 6, etc) I am unsure how to even get to those pages by playing the game. I also saw many other pages with gorilla pics I have not been to yet either.

But this book sure is very relaxing and entertaining!

The artwork is very incredible by the way. Very detailed black and white illustrations. The people look very well drawn with details too. So do the animals. On page 88 you can see the anguish on the face of the lost toddler. On page 62 you can see the fluffy hair on the angry gorilla..and my those teeth!! And the leopard on page 46 is absolutely stunning!! He is snarling and you can see the different muscles + bones under the fur.. It can be very hard to draw big cat in my opinion.

Very relaxing.

[Remo · Rating 4 out of 5]

La serie de Elige tu propia aventura es, literalmente, un clásico de nuestra infancia. He releído algunos, años después, y me parecen un poco cortos de miras, limitados en las posibilidades, pero cuando tenía 10 años cada uno de ellos era una maravilla lista para ser explorada hasta que hubiera dado todo lo que tenía dentro.
Al final siempre sabías que ibas a recorrer todos y cada uno de los caminos posibles. La emoción estaba, por tanto, en ganar y pasarte la historia al primer intento. Si no podías, pues nada, seguro que en el intento 18 acababas encontrando el camino. A veces los autores iban "a pillar", poniéndote los resultados buenos detrás de decisiones que eran claramente anómalas.
Recuerdo haber aprendido tanto palabras como hechos y datos en estos libros. No nadar contra la corriente cuando quieres llegar a tierra, dónde colocarse cuando un avión va a despegar, un montón de cosas interesantes y un montón de historias vividas, decenas por cada libro, que convirtieron a las serie en una colección fractal, donde cada vez podías elegir un libro nuevo entre los que ya tenías.
Llegué hasta el tomo 54 y dejé de tener interés por la serie, pero la serie siguió hasta superar los 180 títulos. Tal vez mis hijos quieran seguir el camino que yo empecé. Si quieres que lo sigan, pasa a la página 7.

[Blue Mullins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I also love these books like the Time Machine books.

[Vera · Rating 5 out of 5]

🦄🦍🦍🐵🐒🐲

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars

[Sloth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book. I love all the possible endings. You could read this book so many times and still not have read every path. I would recommend it. Very Good!

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

'Safari fotográfico' en una aventura de un Edward Packard ( sí, lo de Jim Wallace es un seudónimo nuevamente) con sus principales trazos narrativos pero algo más flojo de lo normal. Para comenzar, creo que el problema radica en su argumento, algo insulso, en el que eres un fotógrafo enviado al bosque impenetrable de Uganda para hacer un reportaje a los Gorilas especiales, y casi exiguos, que habitan en ésos parajes. Pues ahí, prácticamente, comienza y acaba tu historia, que se limita a encontrarlos y fotografiarlos, punto y final. Quizá he notado el 'cansancio' literario de Packard al llevar tantos tomos de la serie a sus espaldas (y no por haberlo leído ahora, a una edad adulta, porqué he estado releyendo algunos de mis antiguos libros de la serie para reseñarlos por aquí, y me siguen pareciendo buenos hoy en día, a ojos del público más joven), ya que apenas se 'sale' del principal argumento trazado y cuando lo hace es para hablarnos de un grupo de expedicionarios tipo estorbo o alguna trampa u animal salvaje de por en medio; pero incluso ahí es algo fallido en desarrollo, y muy poco típico de él, porqué hasta casi todos los finales de las aventuras son semi satisfactorios ( pocas muertes, que era marca de la casa) e ingenuos, que más bien parece de la serie más infantil de elije tu propia aventura: 'Globo azul'.
RECOMENDADO, TAN SÓLO PARA LOS INCONDICIONALES DE PACKARD Y LOS QUE NO HAYAN LEÍDO MUCHOS LIBROS DE ÉSTA SERIE.

[Stina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book #5 for 2014

This was a nice bit of nostalgia for me, as I remember loving these books when I was a kid. I don't remember them having little educational sections at the end, though, so the extra info about gorillas was pretty neat. I have to say that I wasn't all that fond of the storylines and how they branched in this adventure, however. Too often it seemed like there wasn't an intelligent choice at all. Then again, I'm one of those who isn't happy till I've explored every single branch, so maybe my perspective is a little skewed.

If you like CYOA books and/or gorillas, you might find this a fun way to spend an afternoon.

[Dallen Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love these books but this one lacked the adventure and thrill which all the others seems to possess. I also felt there were a lot of inaccurate information, especially since I once lived in Uganda, where the book takes place.

[Judit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha gustado mucho porque me he inventado mi propia aventura

[Brian Zantop · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars just for entertainment value. A stroll down memory lane