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Choose Your Own Adventure #63
Mystery of the Secret Room
Book by Kushner, Ellen
128 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1986
About the author
Ellen Kushner
141 books610 followersEllen 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 5, 2020
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.
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.
August 10, 2010
In many ways, Mystery of the Secret Room is a model Choose Your Own Adventure book. The choices are numerous without clogging the flow of the narrative, and are very smartly created, requiring some good, clear thought in order to respond correctly in a given situation. The writing itself is full of life and terrific humor; in fact, this book is uncommonly funny for a Choose Your Own Adventure entry.
When "You" are left in charge of your unusual Aunt Celia's big house until her return, you're glad to do her the favor. You get antsy when the time for her return comes and goes, though. A note written by your aunt directs you to use a special key to open a particular door should she not return when she's scheduled to, and when you find your way through this door, you are confronted by a puzzling sight.
Three boxes sit in front of you, marked "Past", "Never", and "Future", and opening any one of them will catapult you into a magic, suspenseful adventure that takes you far beyond the limits of your Aunt Celia's house. Should you open the box marked "Past", a warrior boy named Ingeld from the Middle Ages emerges, and your life is now taken up by desperately keeping him from destroying any innocent people in your world. It's amazing how much trouble Ingeld can get into in such a short time, and if you don't handle him properly in every way, the consequences could be deadly. But how are you supposed to control a boy who has been lifted from his own time and inserted in the future, a boy unfamiliar with your modern surroundings or the kind of people who inhabit this future earth?
If you open the box marked "Never", you are suddenly confronted by a griffin that flies from the box, and your troubles increase very quickly. This griffin is hungry, and you must convince him not to eat you while at the same time figuring out how to procure for him a large enough amount of food to keep him satisfied. Keeping the griffin a secret from the outside world won't be easy, and skillfully dodging the myriad threats that crop up to both of your lives will be the only way to find your way to a good End.
If you open the box labeled "Future", you find yourself caught up with a girl nicknamed Woody in a desperate race to divert a terrible tragedy that will forever alter the course of American history should all go as it naturally would. There are consequences to tinkering with the future, though, and even achieving a measure of success may instigate repercussions that affect you and Woody in ways that neither of you would have wanted.
Mystery of the Secret Room is one of the better Choose Your Own Adventure stories, I would say. The construction of the plot is solid throughout, and the adventure is obviously crafted with a lot of creative thought and literary ingenuity. Author Ellen Kushner deals with the fantasy subject matter very well, and the quality of the story will rival most other top entries in the Choose Your Own Adventure series. I would give Mystery of the Secret Room two and a half stars and my recommendation.
When "You" are left in charge of your unusual Aunt Celia's big house until her return, you're glad to do her the favor. You get antsy when the time for her return comes and goes, though. A note written by your aunt directs you to use a special key to open a particular door should she not return when she's scheduled to, and when you find your way through this door, you are confronted by a puzzling sight.
Three boxes sit in front of you, marked "Past", "Never", and "Future", and opening any one of them will catapult you into a magic, suspenseful adventure that takes you far beyond the limits of your Aunt Celia's house. Should you open the box marked "Past", a warrior boy named Ingeld from the Middle Ages emerges, and your life is now taken up by desperately keeping him from destroying any innocent people in your world. It's amazing how much trouble Ingeld can get into in such a short time, and if you don't handle him properly in every way, the consequences could be deadly. But how are you supposed to control a boy who has been lifted from his own time and inserted in the future, a boy unfamiliar with your modern surroundings or the kind of people who inhabit this future earth?
If you open the box marked "Never", you are suddenly confronted by a griffin that flies from the box, and your troubles increase very quickly. This griffin is hungry, and you must convince him not to eat you while at the same time figuring out how to procure for him a large enough amount of food to keep him satisfied. Keeping the griffin a secret from the outside world won't be easy, and skillfully dodging the myriad threats that crop up to both of your lives will be the only way to find your way to a good End.
If you open the box labeled "Future", you find yourself caught up with a girl nicknamed Woody in a desperate race to divert a terrible tragedy that will forever alter the course of American history should all go as it naturally would. There are consequences to tinkering with the future, though, and even achieving a measure of success may instigate repercussions that affect you and Woody in ways that neither of you would have wanted.
Mystery of the Secret Room is one of the better Choose Your Own Adventure stories, I would say. The construction of the plot is solid throughout, and the adventure is obviously crafted with a lot of creative thought and literary ingenuity. Author Ellen Kushner deals with the fantasy subject matter very well, and the quality of the story will rival most other top entries in the Choose Your Own Adventure series. I would give Mystery of the Secret Room two and a half stars and my recommendation.
December 11, 2017
I had forgotten just how much fun these books could be. I am so glad that I found this book again and decided to read it and release it into the wild here.
In many ways it brought back memories of my childhood and the fun I had trying to find the best path in these books.
In many ways it brought back memories of my childhood and the fun I had trying to find the best path in these books.
April 29, 2019
Been rereading this w the kids. Probably one of the best CYOAs. I like how the different subplots all hang together. A touch more imagination and writing style than the average CYOA as well. Props to Ellen Kushner. Protip: there is a “best” and “worst” ending. At least in our opinion! It involves the “NEVER” box.
October 6, 2010
I liked Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was really young. This one was my favorite.
Read
July 5, 2025I haven't read a CYOA since I was 7 years old and would read every option while sitting under the big window in the children's section of my hometown library. Today I did the same thing I always used to do: at every choice junction I slipped in a bookmark, so I could go back and read all the alternates later. This is a pretty good one, as the paths are very different but still all make sense.
October 19, 2022
ADORO!!!! 100% detonante a que quiera escribir un libro, la primera vez que lo leí fue a principios de primaria y damn, libros de elige tu destino>>>>>
August 13, 2025
Fun book! Love the journey like many other CYOA books it’s not too serious and full of magic and exciting journeys. If you want a magical read this is great
December 10, 2015
La tía Célia es una mujer rara que vive en una vieja y curiosa casa a las afueras. Muchas veces vas a cuidarla cuando marcha fuera. Ésta vez te ha dejado una nota en la que te dice que si no está de vuelta el día 31, utilices la llave de la lagartija para abrir la puerta de una habitación secreta que hay allí..¿ esperarás hasta ése día? ¿ qué vas a hacer?
‘La habitación secreta’ es un clara obra marca de la casa de Edward Packard (bajo seudónimo de Ellen Kushner. Es Packard, creedme, está puesto por dentro en los crédito del copyright. Lo aclaro porqué hasta tiene ficha adherida al libro la tal señorita Kushner) de fantasía mezclada con realidad, que nos llevará a tres mundos diferentes y / o nos dará a conocer personajes inverosímiles en nuestro mundo mediante nuestras elecciones: pasado, futuro o nunca ( clara alusión a Peter Pan). Las historias del pasado son retazos de sus obras’ La cueva del tiempo’ o ‘ El castillo prohibido’, desarrollando la convivencia con personajes de otras épocas y los conflictos que generan, además de la nuestra en medio de tan clasista sociedad.
Por el contrario, en la del futuro no puedo aludir a ninguna de sus maravillosas y excéntricas obras como : Ovni 54-40 o Odisea en el hiper espacio, ya que curiosamente toca ‘ más de pies en el suelo’, llevándonos a situaciones de catástrofe futura política o desastres naturales. La vertiente es diferente y buena, pero está poco desarrollada y tiene pocas soluciones.
Finalmente, en el apartado de Nunca nos encontraremos con conexiones con nuestra tía, mucha magia y algún que otro animalito ‘ encantador’ ( sin duda, historias que gustarán a los más pequeños)
Una cosa que cabe destacar es la buena inter conexión y coherencia entre las diferentes aventuras de cada espacio – tiempo; un buen tanto a su favor, ya que en según qué obras de Packard, y una vez leidísimo el tomo, se aprecia cierta incoherencia general en alguna que otra obra ( bueno, más que incoherencia, cambio drástico de argumento).
Y algo que me ha faltado, ha sido algo más de desarrollo en cada aventura, como me tiene acostumbrada el autor.
Aún así, un libro de la serie más que aceptable, especialmente para los más jóvenes iniciados en las aventuras de elección recientemente, y para los fans de Packard también.
‘La habitación secreta’ es un clara obra marca de la casa de Edward Packard (bajo seudónimo de Ellen Kushner. Es Packard, creedme, está puesto por dentro en los crédito del copyright. Lo aclaro porqué hasta tiene ficha adherida al libro la tal señorita Kushner) de fantasía mezclada con realidad, que nos llevará a tres mundos diferentes y / o nos dará a conocer personajes inverosímiles en nuestro mundo mediante nuestras elecciones: pasado, futuro o nunca ( clara alusión a Peter Pan). Las historias del pasado son retazos de sus obras’ La cueva del tiempo’ o ‘ El castillo prohibido’, desarrollando la convivencia con personajes de otras épocas y los conflictos que generan, además de la nuestra en medio de tan clasista sociedad.
Por el contrario, en la del futuro no puedo aludir a ninguna de sus maravillosas y excéntricas obras como : Ovni 54-40 o Odisea en el hiper espacio, ya que curiosamente toca ‘ más de pies en el suelo’, llevándonos a situaciones de catástrofe futura política o desastres naturales. La vertiente es diferente y buena, pero está poco desarrollada y tiene pocas soluciones.
Finalmente, en el apartado de Nunca nos encontraremos con conexiones con nuestra tía, mucha magia y algún que otro animalito ‘ encantador’ ( sin duda, historias que gustarán a los más pequeños)
Una cosa que cabe destacar es la buena inter conexión y coherencia entre las diferentes aventuras de cada espacio – tiempo; un buen tanto a su favor, ya que en según qué obras de Packard, y una vez leidísimo el tomo, se aprecia cierta incoherencia general en alguna que otra obra ( bueno, más que incoherencia, cambio drástico de argumento).
Y algo que me ha faltado, ha sido algo más de desarrollo en cada aventura, como me tiene acostumbrada el autor.
Aún así, un libro de la serie más que aceptable, especialmente para los más jóvenes iniciados en las aventuras de elección recientemente, y para los fans de Packard también.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews