Time Machine 11: Mission to World War II

Time Machine #11

by Susan Nanus

Emanuel Ringleblum was a famous freedom fighter and historian during World War II and the Holocaust. He has hidden several incriminating documents about the Nazis, and it is your mission is to travel back to Warsaw, Poland, and retrieve these documents. There are informers and spies in every corner, so you have to be on your toes at all times! The Time Machine series challenges young readers to use their imagination and decision-making skills to write their own story. Options in the text allow readers to choose any path they like within the plot. Readers must draw on background information about the period to make the right choices. This makes the series a great educational device for youngsters to learn about history and all the different cultures, events, and periods that shaped it. Marc Kornblatt has written many plays, including Clifford's Voices, which has been produced in several theaters in New York. He has also written other books in the Time Machine series. Susan Nanus has written several plays, as well as the screenplay for the 1998 NBC miniseries A Will of Their Own.

Genres: Gamebooks, Fiction

146 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Rabbi Susan Nanus is the Director of Adult Programs and one of seven rabbis at Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. In that capacity, she teaches, preaches, and oversees most of the adult cultural and educational programs at the Temple.
While studying for her smicha at the Academy of Jewish Religion in Los Angeles, Rabbi Nanus worked as a rabbinic intern at Congregation Ahavat Torah in Westwood and the Santa Monica Synagogue. During that time, she was also the Coordinator of Senior Programs at the Westside Jewish Community Center.
A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Rabbi Nanus did not decide to become a rabbi until her mid-50s. Before that, she was a playwright and film and television writer in New York and Los Angeles. Her play, “The Survivor,” about the Warsaw Ghetto, was produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, as well as Los Angeles. As a television movie writer, she had 15 movies on air and won numerous awards.
Rabbi Nanus is also the mother of a daughter, Lili. In her scant spare time, Rabbi Nanus loves to attend theater, read mystery novels, and do research on her favorite subject, Queen Elizabeth I.

Reviews

[Joey V.]

This is that most rare of Choose Your Adventure books, the (more-or-less) historically accurate one. The story of Emmanuel Ringelblum, a historian who made the conditions of the Warsaw ghetto known to the world. While most of these books deal with finding pirate treasure, or dinosaurs, or other Adventure Tropes, this one is a history lesson. One that should never be forgotten.

[Brent]

This started a WWII obsession for me. The plight in the Warsaw ghetto is well done. It's also interesting that many real Warsaw ghetto figures were in the storyline. Terrifying.