Title of the work
Country of the First Edition
Country/countries of popularity
Original Language
First Edition Date
First Edition Details
Deborah Lerme Goodman, ill. Marco Cannela, Choose Your Own Adventure. The Throne of Zeus. Vermont: Chooseco, 2018, 144 pp.
ISBN
Genre
Choose-your-own stories
Target Audience
Children (9–13 years)
Cover
We are still trying to obtain permission for posting the original cover.
Author of the Entry:
Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@biu.ac.il
Peer-reviewer of the Entry:
Lisa Maurice, Bar-Ilan University, lisa.maurice@biu.ac.il
Elżbieta Olechowska, University of Warsaw, elzbieta.olechowska@gmail.com
Marco Cannella
, b. 1972
(Illustrator)
(From the book The Throne of Zeus cover): Marco Cannella is an Italian artist and illustrator. He is also a scenery designer for professional theatre companies and works as a character and set designer of the reproduction of a CG film in Rome.
Bio prepared by Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@biu.ac.il
Deborah Lerme Goodman
, b. 1956
(Author)
Deborah Lerme Goodman is an American author. She has written "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories (The Magic of the Unicorn, The Trumpet of Terror, You See the Future), as well as two children's books for the Smithsonian institution and magazine articles on textiles. She also taught English in Kunming, China.
Source:
Profile at cyoa.com (accessed: January 10, 2021).
Bio prepared by Ayelet Peer, Bar-Ilan University, ayelet.peer@biu.ac.il
Summary
This is a choose-your-adventure book in which the reader decides which path to follow. The overall setting is as follows: the reader is the child of archaeologists parents, who are currently on an excavation in Athens. The parents believe they have found the throne of Zeus yet they need evidence so that their excavation is not cancelled. The reader, addressed as "You," is told to "stay with your grandmother who advises you to talk to Zeus." Then the adventure begins. The goddess Athena takes the reader back in time to ancient Athens where he/she participates in various adventures adapted from ancient myths: about Persephone, the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, Hercules and the Cretan Bull and the golden apples, the chariot of Phaethon and the kidnapping of Dionysus. Each adventure can possibly end in the reader's demise or being locked up in the ancient past, yet some will lead him/her back home to their own time with the proof their parents seek.
Analysis
The book allows the readers to take part in the myths. The plot encourages participation and engagement with the story for the readers to fully enjoy it. These books can be seen as the reading equivalents of computer games since the reader must follow different paths and choose wisely or else his "game" is over.
While the ancient myths provide the setting for the adventures, the author made several changes to them. For example, when the reader is trapped in the Labyrinth and is facing the Minotaur, they can choose whether to stay or try to run. If they choose to remain, they discover the humanity of the Minotaur. He says: "you are the first person who has not run away from me" [p. 28]. The Minotaur even confesses that he prefers grass yet the king only feeds him prisoners. The Minotaur then helps the reader escape and continue the quest for Zeus. Sadly the Minotaur loses his life no matter which path you ultimately choose. His fate in this story does not differ from his tragic mythical fate.
The reader also gets to meet Icarus and Daedalus and they remind him (her) of the old sad myth his grandmother used to tell about Icarus' fall. The reader tries to warn Icarus but in vain. As Athena tells him, "Icarus had to die that way. None of us can change his fate" [p. 84]. However, in another alternate ending, Icarus and the reader meet again and Icarus returns in time and is even adopted by the reader’s parents, hence his story finally receives a happy ending in modern times.
In the end, this adventure book allows the reader to explore various myths and even provides them with a happier ending. The readers get the chance to "meet" mythological deities and heroes and live through some of the fascinating adventures which Greek mythology offers.
