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Choose Your Own Adventure: Young Readers #38
Sand Castle
When an ordinary sand castle is transformed into a real castle overnight, the reader is led into a fantastical adventure
51 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
37 people want to read
About the author
R.A. Montgomery
156 books121 followersRaymond A. Montgomery (born 1936 in Connecticut) was an author and progenitor of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure interactive children's book series, which ran from 1979 to 2003. Montgomery graduated from Williams College and went to graduate school at Yale University and New York University (NYU). He devoted his life to teaching and education.
In 2004, he co-founded the Chooseco publishing company alongside his wife, fellow author/publisher Shannon Gilligan, with the goal of reviving the CYOA series with new novels and reissued editions of the classics.
He continued to write and publish until his death in 2014.
In 2004, he co-founded the Chooseco publishing company alongside his wife, fellow author/publisher Shannon Gilligan, with the goal of reviving the CYOA series with new novels and reissued editions of the classics.
He continued to write and publish until his death in 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 28, 2024
Mixing fantasy and realism, this book takes you on a beach holiday with your family, where the sand sculptures you build turn out to be full of surprises. You're hesitant to leave your sand castle and head inside your parents' beachside cottage after your father calls you for dinner. The castle you are building is complex, and adding creative flourishes to the architecture is a fun challenge. You hope to resume construction early in the morning, but that night a storm descends, which your mother says will probably obliterate your sand castle. Lying in bed, you hear a faint call for help above the sounds of wind and rain, seemingly from the direction of your sand castle. Your parents would never let you go out in this weather, but can you really go to sleep without investigating?
If you wait until morning, you find no sign of whoever was calling for help. Your sand castle is half destroyed, but you meet a younger boy named Todd sitting nearby. He asks to help rebuild, but are you interested in his offer? Saying yes leads you to meet Todd's older brother and sister, Biff and Marcelle. They stroll over from their family's private area of the beach with their dog, Lobster. You, Todd, and his siblings can reconstruct your sand castle to be better than ever, or go exploring a supposedly haunted cove or sunken ship Marcelle knows about. You've made some new friends, and had a better vacation than expected.
Going outside at night as soon as you hear the distress calls from your sand castle is where you find most of this book's adventures. As you approach the sand castle an ocean wave crashes over you, and shrinks you to the size of a snail. Your castle looms high above, suddenly looking like a real medieval fortification. You could run back to your bedroom, hoping you revert to normal size, but the lawn in front of the cottage is teeming with insects that may harm you in your shrunken state. You might search for help instead, but will the fiddler crab you bump into be a worthy ally, or run away when the going gets treacherous? If you enter the castle you could end up a prisoner in the dungeon, be attacked by an eel, or find a pair of children held captive in a lavishly decorated room. Were they the ones crying for help? Whatever adventure you choose, if you make it home safe and back to your old size, you'll have a new outlook on sand castles. Who knew a bit of recreation at the shore could hold such excitement?
I might rate Sand Castle one and a half stars; it isn't one of my favorite Bantam Skylark Choose Your Own Adventures. No explanation is even attempted for the castle's magic, and you're not pursuing a clear goal. If you want a mini vacation to the beach in your imagination, though, Sand Castle might be satisfying. There isn't much story in its fifty-one pages, but the right kind of reader will have a good time.
If you wait until morning, you find no sign of whoever was calling for help. Your sand castle is half destroyed, but you meet a younger boy named Todd sitting nearby. He asks to help rebuild, but are you interested in his offer? Saying yes leads you to meet Todd's older brother and sister, Biff and Marcelle. They stroll over from their family's private area of the beach with their dog, Lobster. You, Todd, and his siblings can reconstruct your sand castle to be better than ever, or go exploring a supposedly haunted cove or sunken ship Marcelle knows about. You've made some new friends, and had a better vacation than expected.
Going outside at night as soon as you hear the distress calls from your sand castle is where you find most of this book's adventures. As you approach the sand castle an ocean wave crashes over you, and shrinks you to the size of a snail. Your castle looms high above, suddenly looking like a real medieval fortification. You could run back to your bedroom, hoping you revert to normal size, but the lawn in front of the cottage is teeming with insects that may harm you in your shrunken state. You might search for help instead, but will the fiddler crab you bump into be a worthy ally, or run away when the going gets treacherous? If you enter the castle you could end up a prisoner in the dungeon, be attacked by an eel, or find a pair of children held captive in a lavishly decorated room. Were they the ones crying for help? Whatever adventure you choose, if you make it home safe and back to your old size, you'll have a new outlook on sand castles. Who knew a bit of recreation at the shore could hold such excitement?
I might rate Sand Castle one and a half stars; it isn't one of my favorite Bantam Skylark Choose Your Own Adventures. No explanation is even attempted for the castle's magic, and you're not pursuing a clear goal. If you want a mini vacation to the beach in your imagination, though, Sand Castle might be satisfying. There isn't much story in its fifty-one pages, but the right kind of reader will have a good time.
October 10, 2019
Mixing fantasy and realism, this book takes you on a beach holiday with your family, where the sand sculptures you build turn out to be full of surprises. You're hesitant to leave your sand castle and head inside your parents' beachside cottage after your father calls you for dinner. The castle you are building is complex, and adding creative flourishes to the architecture is a fun challenge. You hope to resume construction early in the morning, but that night a storm descends, which your mother says will probably obliterate your sand castle. Lying in bed, you hear a faint call for help above the sounds of wind and rain, seemingly from the direction of your sand castle. Your parents would never let you go out in this weather, but can you really go to sleep without investigating?
If you wait until morning, you find no sign of whoever was calling for help. Your sand castle is half destroyed, but you meet a younger boy named Todd sitting nearby. He asks to help rebuild, but are you interested in his offer? Saying yes leads you to meet Todd's older brother and sister, Biff and Marcelle. They stroll over from their family's private area of the beach with their dog, Lobster. You, Todd, and his siblings can reconstruct your sand castle to be better than ever, or go exploring a supposedly haunted cove or sunken ship Marcelle knows about. You've made some new friends, and had a better vacation than expected.
Going outside at night as soon as you hear the distress calls from your sand castle is where you find most of this book's adventures. As you approach the sand castle an ocean wave crashes over you, and shrinks you to the size of a snail. Your castle looms high above, suddenly looking like a real medieval fortification. You could run back to your bedroom, hoping you revert to normal size, but the lawn in front of the cottage is teeming with insects that may harm you in your shrunken state. You might search for help instead, but will the fiddler crab you bump into be a worthy ally, or run away when the going gets treacherous? If you enter the castle you could end up a prisoner in the dungeon, be attacked by an eel, or find a pair of children held captive in a lavishly decorated room. Were they the ones crying for help? Whatever adventure you choose, if you make it home safe and back to your old size, you'll have a new outlook on sand castles. Who knew a bit of recreation at the shore could hold such excitement?
Sand Castle isn't one of my favorite Choose Your Own Adventure books. No explanation is even attempted for the castle's magic, and you're not pursuing a clear goal. I much prefer Leslie Morrill's illustrations from the original Bantam Skylark edition to Keith Newton's in this Dragonlark version. If you want a mini vacation to the beach in your imagination, though, Sand Castle might be satisfying. There isn't much story in its fifty-one pages, but the right kind of reader will have a good time.
If you wait until morning, you find no sign of whoever was calling for help. Your sand castle is half destroyed, but you meet a younger boy named Todd sitting nearby. He asks to help rebuild, but are you interested in his offer? Saying yes leads you to meet Todd's older brother and sister, Biff and Marcelle. They stroll over from their family's private area of the beach with their dog, Lobster. You, Todd, and his siblings can reconstruct your sand castle to be better than ever, or go exploring a supposedly haunted cove or sunken ship Marcelle knows about. You've made some new friends, and had a better vacation than expected.
Going outside at night as soon as you hear the distress calls from your sand castle is where you find most of this book's adventures. As you approach the sand castle an ocean wave crashes over you, and shrinks you to the size of a snail. Your castle looms high above, suddenly looking like a real medieval fortification. You could run back to your bedroom, hoping you revert to normal size, but the lawn in front of the cottage is teeming with insects that may harm you in your shrunken state. You might search for help instead, but will the fiddler crab you bump into be a worthy ally, or run away when the going gets treacherous? If you enter the castle you could end up a prisoner in the dungeon, be attacked by an eel, or find a pair of children held captive in a lavishly decorated room. Were they the ones crying for help? Whatever adventure you choose, if you make it home safe and back to your old size, you'll have a new outlook on sand castles. Who knew a bit of recreation at the shore could hold such excitement?
Sand Castle isn't one of my favorite Choose Your Own Adventure books. No explanation is even attempted for the castle's magic, and you're not pursuing a clear goal. I much prefer Leslie Morrill's illustrations from the original Bantam Skylark edition to Keith Newton's in this Dragonlark version. If you want a mini vacation to the beach in your imagination, though, Sand Castle might be satisfying. There isn't much story in its fifty-one pages, but the right kind of reader will have a good time.
September 7, 2024
I love CYOA books, but this one was weird, even for me. The story offers simple pathways to choose, and I did like the variety in the options (battle an eel, invoke the help of an angler fish, just give up and go back to sleep, etc.); however, a lot of the storylines ended too abruptly, I would have liked a bit more background information/story added in, and the pictures did not do the book any favors.
May 24, 2018
Nota: Ésta reseña pretende analizar las serie de aventuras contenida en el presente volumen mediante dos visiones: la del más pequeño y la del adulto, para así poder servir de ayuda en una futura recomendación de lectura y compra. Por lo cual, puede contener ciertos Spoilers
Estás en la playa construyendo tu castillo de arena, cuando tus padres te llaman para que entres en vuestro hogar de veraneo porque es tarde. Por la madrugada te despiertas por el temporal que se avecina, miras en dirección al castillo (apenado, pues seguramente de deshará),cuando escuchas una voz que pide auxilio proveniente de éste. ¿pero cómo es posible sí es de arena y tú lo has hecho?. Pero la curiosidad te puede más que la razón y vas a ver qué ocurre.
Decir que éste libro es ciertamente extraño es quedarme corta. Aquí, y ya de base, se nos da un previo de desarrollo argumental muy sugerente pero extremadamente fantasioso. Si bien no es malo para el infante lector, no es una fantasía al uso, su desarrollo es extravagante y dadaísta (parece que Montgomery quiso imitar las psicodélias clásicas de Packard en sus geniales: ‘Ovni 54-40’ o ‘Odisea en el hiper espacio’. El autor ya tiene alguna experiencia en ello (Prisionero de las hormigas, por ejemplo), pero ésta es de lejos la más bizarra y abrupta de todas. Vale que nos encontraremos Cangrejos, anguilas eléctricas o seamos apresados en nuestro propio castillo de arena (..o no vale,¿?), pero el desarrollo de las ‘aventuras’ es muy confuso y hasta ilógico dentro de lo que pueda ser una fantasía.
Lo peor del caso es que la voz de auxilio queda en la nada prácticamente, además de haber muchos finales ‘abiertos’ a interpretaciones para el lector pequeño (y hombre, a ésa edad tampoco pidamos peras al olmo, xd), otras cosas dadas por hechas y desenlaces que son cómo si te tirasen un vaso de agua por la espalda.
No sé en qué pensaba el casi siempre resoluto y equilibrado escritor. A mí, particularmente me ha hecho gracia por que considero que es ‘una ida de cabeza’ en toda regla.
Una obra que gustaría más a los adultos que tengas deleite por las rarezas, sin duda.
Toda una curiosidad de libro, ya lo creo.
Estás en la playa construyendo tu castillo de arena, cuando tus padres te llaman para que entres en vuestro hogar de veraneo porque es tarde. Por la madrugada te despiertas por el temporal que se avecina, miras en dirección al castillo (apenado, pues seguramente de deshará),cuando escuchas una voz que pide auxilio proveniente de éste. ¿pero cómo es posible sí es de arena y tú lo has hecho?. Pero la curiosidad te puede más que la razón y vas a ver qué ocurre.
Decir que éste libro es ciertamente extraño es quedarme corta. Aquí, y ya de base, se nos da un previo de desarrollo argumental muy sugerente pero extremadamente fantasioso. Si bien no es malo para el infante lector, no es una fantasía al uso, su desarrollo es extravagante y dadaísta (parece que Montgomery quiso imitar las psicodélias clásicas de Packard en sus geniales: ‘Ovni 54-40’ o ‘Odisea en el hiper espacio’. El autor ya tiene alguna experiencia en ello (Prisionero de las hormigas, por ejemplo), pero ésta es de lejos la más bizarra y abrupta de todas. Vale que nos encontraremos Cangrejos, anguilas eléctricas o seamos apresados en nuestro propio castillo de arena (..o no vale,¿?), pero el desarrollo de las ‘aventuras’ es muy confuso y hasta ilógico dentro de lo que pueda ser una fantasía.
Lo peor del caso es que la voz de auxilio queda en la nada prácticamente, además de haber muchos finales ‘abiertos’ a interpretaciones para el lector pequeño (y hombre, a ésa edad tampoco pidamos peras al olmo, xd), otras cosas dadas por hechas y desenlaces que son cómo si te tirasen un vaso de agua por la espalda.
No sé en qué pensaba el casi siempre resoluto y equilibrado escritor. A mí, particularmente me ha hecho gracia por que considero que es ‘una ida de cabeza’ en toda regla.
Una obra que gustaría más a los adultos que tengas deleite por las rarezas, sin duda.
Toda una curiosidad de libro, ya lo creo.
September 19, 2012
Our oldest has been bringing home various You Choose books from her elementary school library. And now at our local library we've discovered some of the books from the original Choose Your Own Adventure series that I read when I was a child. I remember loving books like this in my childhood and I am excited that our girls are discovering them as well.
This is a CYOA book for young readers and it features a big sand castle and an approaching storm. It's a fun story with colorful illustrations and we enjoyed reading it together, taking turns following different paths.
This is a CYOA book for young readers and it features a big sand castle and an approaching storm. It's a fun story with colorful illustrations and we enjoyed reading it together, taking turns following different paths.
June 25, 2025
Children's first chapter book. I read this with my two sons on our beach vacation. While we did like choosing the paths and trying to get all of the endings, there really wasn't much to the story. The intro has the reader hearing "help" coming from the sandcastle, but only one or two of the endings actually features anyone needing help. Each storyline seemed a bit abrupt as well.
April 18, 2018
Love that they are reissuing the choose your own adventure books from when I was a kid. I used to love them and now Nathan can discover them too!
June 26, 2022
Three stars mostly for the premise, which is genuinely interesting and full of possibilities.
March 31, 2025
2.5
Read younger kiddo version with pictures.
Read younger kiddo version with pictures.
May 20, 2015
I like it because you get to choose the ending.
July 16, 2015
I liked when the boy helped build the sand castle. I liked how it was a self book-I could choose the ending.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews