Dinosaur Island

Choose Your Own Adventure #138

by Edward Packard

Shipwrecked on a mysterious island, the reader discovers that the eccentric owner of the island plans to create dinosaurs from DNA samples, and the reader must warn the world about the deadly plan. Original.

Genres: Choose Your Own Adventure, Gamebooks, Fiction, Science Fiction, Childrens, Dinosaurs

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1993

About the author

Edward Packard attended and graduated from both Princeton University and Columbia Law School. He was one of the first authors to explore the idea of gamebooks, in which the reader is inserted as the main character and makes choices about the direction the story will go at designated places in the text.

The first such book that Edward Packard wrote in the Choose Your Own Adventure series was titled "Sugarcane Island", but it was not actually published as the first entry in the Choose Your Own Adventure Series. In 1979, the first book to be released in the series was "The Cave of Time", a fantasy time-travel story that remained in print for many years. Eventually, one hundred eighty-four Choose Your Own Adventure books would be published before production on new entries to the series ceased in 1998. Edward Packard was the author of many of these books, though a substantial number of other authors were included as well.

In 2005, Choose Your Own Adventure books once again began to be published, but none of Edward Packard's titles have yet been included among the newly-released books.

Reviews

[Juan Quiroga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Habré leído dos o tres libros de esta gigantesca colección de aventuras. Muchas contenían elementos de la ciencia ficción y solo recuerdo por el título, esta historia. Destacado y recordado por elegir múltiples caminos como diversos finales. La trama es muy similar o alude a Jurassic Park de los cuales muchos caminos eran crueles o tenían un destino fatal, salvo uno o dos que eran muy malos para ser bueno.

PD: no recuerdo el año en que lo leí para poder añadirlo =(

[Nick Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

The central conceit of a Choose Your Own Adventure book is that the reader gets to make a series of choices that decide what the fate of the protagonist is going to be. Conversely, Dinosaur Island has a very particular story it wants to tell, taking the reader down a straight path where the only choices are the avenue the author wanted to continue or a side branch with no more choices to be had before a (bad) ending. There are only thirteen endings to the book, which is very low for the series, and a mere ten pages on your own adventure where you get to choose anything. In contrast, Secret of the Ninja (which I use as an example only because the hardcover copy I own was sticking out farther than any of the other books on the shelf) bills itself as having fully "29 EXCITING ENDINGS!" and presents twenty-eight pages on which you get to pick between various options. The long stretches of the core plot unfortunately march you through a painfully obvious neutered rip-off of the film version of Jurassic Park (itself a neutered adaption of the book Jurassic Park) that was released in the very same year. Stop me if you've heard this one: A wealthy elderly man owns a company that is engaging in experiments to clone dinosaurs on a remote island, only for the dinosaurs to run amok and chase after some kids. Did Edward Packard just decide that dignity is for losers and he was content to be a blatant plagiarist? If I was tasked to write a kids' book about dinosaurs (or even cloned dinosaurs specifically), you'd better believe that I would make it as different from one of the biggest blockbuster films of all time as I possibly could. Even Roger Corman's Carnosaur tried harder to be original, for chrissakes.

How unimaginative is this book outside of that? You get killed by dinosaurs in precisely three endings, which for some reason is equal to the number of disappointing endings where a volcano spontaneously blows up and kills you. One of the endings has the protagonist fall off of a fence and get killed by a bite from a regular snake in a book about dinosaurs.

Edward Packard, what are you doing?

[Brandon Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's get this out of the way. Yes, this is a blatant rip-off of Jurassic Park. But that does not make it bad. Jurassic Park is awesome. Dinosaur Island is awesome.

It's got good variety for a CYOA book. It delivers on what it promises. The endings are satisfying and the choices it asks you to make are interesting.

You've got an evil, French version of John Hammond, an island full of dinosaurs and mercenaries and an active volcano that serves as a ticking clock. What else could you possibly want?

This is a legit adventure and the fact that it's unoriginal does not at all make it bad.

(Also, is no one going to mention that this has a volcano way before Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom came up with the same idea? ...and it does it better!)

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can't go wrong with a fun choose-your-own-adventure book. I liked this one less than the one I read last year, Mystery of the Highland Crest. I believe it's just because I prefer Scotland over dinosaurs. This book was published in the early 90's and I think it was meant to directly correspond with the Jurassic Park movie. There was an island that owned by a mysterious billionaire filled with dinosaurs he recreated from amber. Come on! It was fine and I mostly liked flipping through all the pages. I think I have one left on my shelf about a yeti in Nepal. Nothing too exciting to write home about, but it's one book closer to my 100 books goal!

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

You will eventually have dinosaurs on dinosaur island?

[Lendl Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had fun reading this choose-your-own adventure with my 6 and 7 year old and letting them make the choices. We survived!

[Ami Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needed more dinosaur action!

[Liya Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s ok

[Baragon301 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best one.

[Emy]

perfect campfire story

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

the adventures that I went through when I was bored I just read these books over and over again you would never get to the end of the story.

[Taylor Troncin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to love these choose your own adventure books when I was younger! It was nice to go back through memory lane with this book!

[Laurabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this in elementary school. Thought it was amazing back then lol