Item - Could You Be a Squirrel?

(Review based on the Spanish translation.)

Pretty much everything I said in my review of Could You Be a Mouse? applies to this entry as well (except for the fact that this time author and photographer are different people). Of course, the natural facts you learn this time around are different, making this book worth a read even if you've already read other entries in the series. All in all, this is a worthwhile entry in the only interactive photonovel series I'm aware of.

My high score: 76.

More reviews by Guillermo

[Rating: 2/10]
[Recommended? NO]

The Survival gamebooks, for all their variety, follow the same format and aim to do precisely the same thing: invoke in younger readers the beginning steps of logic-based decising-making skills from the perspective of a wild animal (in this case, a squirrel). There's a delightfully educational approach that is at once encouraging and objective, and a uniquely semi-expansive photographic format that makes for an unusually immersive experience for children (at least superficially) - pages themselves consist of little text at times, though, instead offering a pictorical "go to this place by turning to that page". However, I found the writing to be rather uninspired, the book easy to sweep through in no time at all, the scoring system to be somewhat unremarkable, and the book itself to be a little more depressing than necessary. This is a book that had great intentions and brilliant potential - but the concept doesn't really translate into a replayable classic or even a book with much lasting literary worth once younger readers have gone through the survival game once. Again, it's a good idea with mismatched execution - and a tough book to recommend to most readers as well. ^^

(Mysteriously disappears into the shadows.)

More reviews by Shadeheart