Can You Catch a Swamp Monster?: An Interactive Monster Hunt

by Eric Braun

Overview

In this interactive chapter book, YOU are a reporter for a top-ranked mystery podcast, and you’re out to crack the biggest case yet: Do swamp monsters exist? To find out, you’ll investigate some of history’s greatest swamp monster mysteries, including the Lizard Man, the Australian Bunyip, and the Honey Island Swamp Monster of Louisiana. Will you catch a real-life monster or become part of the legend? It’s up to YOU! With dozens of choices, you can follow the clues to the end. Which path will YOU CHOOSE to discover the truth?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666336795
Publisher:	Capstone
Publication date:	01/08/2022
Series:	You Choose: Monster Hunter
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)
Lexile:	700L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

About the Author

Eric Braun is a children’s author and editor. He has written dozens of books on many topics, and one of his books was read by an astronaut on the International Space Station for kids on Earth to watch. Eric lives in Minneapolis with his wife, two kids, and a dog who is afraid of cardboard.

Interviews

An exciting new series in the bestselling YOU CHOOSE format! With multiple choices and endings, You Choose supports decision-making skills and encourages multiple readings;

Editorial Reviews

This snappy, interactive series casts readers in the “roles” of cryptozoologists/investigative reporters on “missions” to hunt for intriguing cryptids. Typical of this type of fare, different paths are suggested to readers every few pages so they can select desired routes based on given possibilities. Various choices and story endings are offered, and with so many options, students have lots to read and reread in these slim volumes. While they “explore,” readers, addressed with personal pronouns throughout, also learn facts about the monsters, e.g., their origins, locations, what’s known about them, and where they’ve been seen. Each volume opens with an announcement of readers’ “assignments”; the final chapter in each title no longer involves readers as investigators but sums up facts about the monster (or, in the case of the alien book, facts about extraterrestrial life and space exploration). Texts are lively, written in present tense, and use vernacular prose, keeping readers and their “assignments” immediate. Occasionally, things get gruesome, and “no one knows for sure” is the ultimate conclusion. Catchy, kid-appealing covers and atmospheric illustrations and photos enliven the proceedings; maps are used where needed. “More ___Sightings,” a back-matter feature in each volume, contains examples of other, similar types of the cryptid. VERDICT Recommended for public and school collections. The series’s clever premise offers some action-packed, entertaining reading opportunities for good as well as striving readers.

School Library Journal - Carol Goldman