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Choose Your Own Adventure: Young Readers #7
Help! You're Shrinking
You see a strange bottle. You pick it up and the blue liquid splashes on your arm. Suddenly you shrink and you're no taller than a blade of grass! Will you be able to get back to size? It all depends on the choices you make in this Choose Your Own Adventure book.
52 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1983
94 people want to read
About the author
Edward Packard
170 books127 followersEdward 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 6, 2025
Help! You're Shrinking is far from the only gamebook in which you shrink after interacting with some potion or magic, but Edward Packard's name on the cover automatically grants it a bit of extra credibility. He authored some of the most memorable gamebooks I've encountered, and I hoped this would be another winner. You and your dog Dusty are walking beside Duck Pond when you spot a glass bottle. The label warns not to touch it, and gives the address of a Professor Riga to whom the bottle should be returned if found. You wonder why the blue liquid inside is supposedly dangerous; should you take a closer look?
Leaving the bottle alone is the smart choice, but if you do, Dusty sniffs too close to it and shrinks to the size of a bunny. You could run home by yourself and alert your mother, but is she qualified to help? You can carry your tiny pooch home and consult the veterinarian, but Dr. Kemp is only able to do so much without the bottle of shrinking formula. Will you risk retrieving it for her, knowing you might shrink if you touch it? Either way, you cross paths with Professor Riga, a nervous man profusely apologetic for his carelessness with the shrinking fluid. He's concocted a green liquid he believes is the antidote, but do you consent to Dusty being his test subject? If you pick up the bottle immediately after Dusty first shrinks, you too fall victim to the shrinking fluid. The grass is now a perilous jungle, full of massive, deadly insects. You may end up taking a ride on Dusty's back, or becoming so small you're able to hide in an empty soda bottle. If Professor Riga finds you, brandishing his antidote, don't be so sure you can trust his scientific quackery.
Maybe you chose to examine the bottle as soon as you and Dusty first saw it. In that case, some of the blue substance splashes you, and in moments you are rapidly shrinking. Can you wash the liquid off in Duck Pond and arrest the shrinking process? At your new height, frogs, muskrats, and hornets cause you to fear for your life. You may have to ponder a radically different future as the tiniest human who ever lived. If you're banking on being completely restored to your life before the bottle, you're probably expecting too much, but some story outcomes are definitely happier than others.
No ending in Help! You're Shrinking takes you and Dusty both back to regular size, except for the obligatory "it was all a dream" ending. A wide variety of fates await in these pages: you or Dusty might grow into giants from Professor Riga's antidote, or refuse to take it and remain permanently miniature. You might get lost in the "jungle" beside Duck Pond, doomed to continue shrinking, or you might drown in chocolate pudding. One ending bears striking resemblance to the conclusion of the classic 1957 movie The Incredible Shrinking Man. Ultimately, this book falls short of its potential. Some of the choices suggest you're an odd kid, prone to flights of fancy (one of them literal) that stymie your own efforts to get you back to regular size. I'd rate this book one and a half stars—at least Lorna Tomei does interesting illustrations of the Duck Pond "jungle" when you're shrunk—but Help! You're Shrinking is not an example of Choose Your Own Adventure excellence. It's worth a few minutes of silly fun, but nothing more.
Leaving the bottle alone is the smart choice, but if you do, Dusty sniffs too close to it and shrinks to the size of a bunny. You could run home by yourself and alert your mother, but is she qualified to help? You can carry your tiny pooch home and consult the veterinarian, but Dr. Kemp is only able to do so much without the bottle of shrinking formula. Will you risk retrieving it for her, knowing you might shrink if you touch it? Either way, you cross paths with Professor Riga, a nervous man profusely apologetic for his carelessness with the shrinking fluid. He's concocted a green liquid he believes is the antidote, but do you consent to Dusty being his test subject? If you pick up the bottle immediately after Dusty first shrinks, you too fall victim to the shrinking fluid. The grass is now a perilous jungle, full of massive, deadly insects. You may end up taking a ride on Dusty's back, or becoming so small you're able to hide in an empty soda bottle. If Professor Riga finds you, brandishing his antidote, don't be so sure you can trust his scientific quackery.
Maybe you chose to examine the bottle as soon as you and Dusty first saw it. In that case, some of the blue substance splashes you, and in moments you are rapidly shrinking. Can you wash the liquid off in Duck Pond and arrest the shrinking process? At your new height, frogs, muskrats, and hornets cause you to fear for your life. You may have to ponder a radically different future as the tiniest human who ever lived. If you're banking on being completely restored to your life before the bottle, you're probably expecting too much, but some story outcomes are definitely happier than others.
No ending in Help! You're Shrinking takes you and Dusty both back to regular size, except for the obligatory "it was all a dream" ending. A wide variety of fates await in these pages: you or Dusty might grow into giants from Professor Riga's antidote, or refuse to take it and remain permanently miniature. You might get lost in the "jungle" beside Duck Pond, doomed to continue shrinking, or you might drown in chocolate pudding. One ending bears striking resemblance to the conclusion of the classic 1957 movie The Incredible Shrinking Man. Ultimately, this book falls short of its potential. Some of the choices suggest you're an odd kid, prone to flights of fancy (one of them literal) that stymie your own efforts to get you back to regular size. I'd rate this book one and a half stars—at least Lorna Tomei does interesting illustrations of the Duck Pond "jungle" when you're shrunk—but Help! You're Shrinking is not an example of Choose Your Own Adventure excellence. It's worth a few minutes of silly fun, but nothing more.
July 17, 2017
Read this book with my son. I'm introducing him to Choose Your Own Adventure books. He thinks they are fun, but now that I'm older it seems a lot of these books actually don't seem to have much (if at all) conclusions...they sort of just end during the story.
April 1, 2025
My favorite kind of an adventure, similar to "George Shrinks."
December 31, 2022
Help Your Shrinking
My Story:
My dog Dusty and I are out walking and find a bottle in the grass. It says don’t touch it but return it to Professor Riga on Duck Pond Road. (How are we supposed to not touch it and return it at the same time). I just ignore it. Dusty runs over and sniffs at the bottle and then takes off running. When he returns, he’s shrunk. I know I have to get him to the doctor, but should I touch him? If I do I might shrink too? Tough one. I wouldn’t want to leave my dog in the woods. I pick him up and chance it. Mom says we have to get Dusty to the doctor. He continues to shrink. Dr. Kemp isn’t much help. She says she’s never seen anything like it. You tell her about the bottle and she wants to get the bottle before it endangers more people. Should we go back for the bottle? As long as we don’t have to touch it, no harm in showing her. *She* can touch it. She’s a doctor and might have gloves. When we go back Professor Riga is there looking for the potion. He says he made two and left one. He finds it and then takes the one he has and shrinks the other potion. OH KAAY. We’re like great but what about my dog and it ends. What kind of ending is that? Yeah, I got through the story without getting shrunk but.. That was lame. I don’t think I’ll be trying any more endings.
Rating: 3
My Story:
My dog Dusty and I are out walking and find a bottle in the grass. It says don’t touch it but return it to Professor Riga on Duck Pond Road. (How are we supposed to not touch it and return it at the same time). I just ignore it. Dusty runs over and sniffs at the bottle and then takes off running. When he returns, he’s shrunk. I know I have to get him to the doctor, but should I touch him? If I do I might shrink too? Tough one. I wouldn’t want to leave my dog in the woods. I pick him up and chance it. Mom says we have to get Dusty to the doctor. He continues to shrink. Dr. Kemp isn’t much help. She says she’s never seen anything like it. You tell her about the bottle and she wants to get the bottle before it endangers more people. Should we go back for the bottle? As long as we don’t have to touch it, no harm in showing her. *She* can touch it. She’s a doctor and might have gloves. When we go back Professor Riga is there looking for the potion. He says he made two and left one. He finds it and then takes the one he has and shrinks the other potion. OH KAAY. We’re like great but what about my dog and it ends. What kind of ending is that? Yeah, I got through the story without getting shrunk but.. That was lame. I don’t think I’ll be trying any more endings.
Rating: 3
July 9, 2013
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.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews