Item - Surf Monkeys

If I met Jay Leibold, Surf Monkeys is among his Choose Your Own Adventures I would inquire about. In the Dedication and About the Author sections, he mentions a surfer girl named Pat Reed as the impetus for this book. Are its events based on something that happened to her, or just on her general advocacy for health of the oceans? I'd be curious to find out. You are from Indiana, but have maneuvered into spending the summer with your uncle Dave on the California coast. You made a friend named Jorge at Surfer's Cove who taught you to ride the waves, and already you're proficient. One day when Jorge doesn't appear at the Cove, you're horrified to see his surfboard wash up with a shark bite in it. You suspect foul play rather than a real shark attack, and wonder if the Surf Monkeys, a group of young surfers, knows anything about Jorge's whereabouts. Will you join them to access information, or are you better off looking for Jorge by yourself?

The Surf Monkeys, led by a guy named Carlos, are all about two things: surfing the day away, and guarding the ocean from threats such as the oil rig recently erected near a fault line in the water. This has them nervous and bothered Jorge as well, but is it connected to his disappearance? To join the Surf Monkeys you'll face a stiff initiation challenge, which means either riding a huge broken-down roller coaster or shooting a dangerous pier on your board, both in the dark of night. You might find your first lead on Jorge when a drunken man threatens you outside a tavern called the Oiled Gull, but your big break comes when you overhear Carlos and the guys heatedly discussing Jorge. Seemingly afraid of legal repercussions, Carlos wants to skip town awhile and go surfing in Baja, Mexico, but is it wise to tag along so you can find out more? Maybe Jorge is much closer to the Cove than you know. You may be better off letting the Surf Monkeys leave and continuing to search on your own. If you meet a recluse named Earthquake Joe, he'll tell you a major quake is about to hit the Cove and could cause environmental disaster if the oil rig doesn't hold up. You have to locate Jorge before the earthquake, but where is he?

Decide against joining the Surf Monkeys in the first place, and you know you'll have to turn up a lead shortly or go to the police. Jorge's immigration status is a big question and you don't wish to get him in trouble, but you're not about to let him vanish without a word of protest. Scanning a shortwave radio, you catch a suspicious transmission between the oil rig—codename Alpha Yankee—and the Polar Bear, a tanker ship set to sail for Alaska. The police could help, but will they lend a hand to a kid like Jorge, mixed up in sabotage accusations from an oil company? Maybe you should seek help from the Surf Monkeys, who evidently knew Jorge well and are opposed to the oil rig on principle. If Jorge is in danger, can you and the Surf Monkeys get him to safety? Your friend's well-being is a priority, but you're worried about the oil rig as reports firm up that an earthquake is coming. If the rig cracks under that stress, the ocean could flood with oil for years.

With only nine endings, Surf Monkeys is a deeper dive and better written than most Choose Your Own Adventures, but doesn't quite succeed as a compelling mystery. The reason for Jorge's disappearance is hard to swallow; resentment toward an accused saboteur is understandable, but why risk kidnapping charges when all you have to do is file complaint with a police department that has already shown sympathy to the rig workers? The premise doesn't compute, which is a shame because a lot of Surf Monkeys is good. Jay Leibold demonstrates a skillful writing touch and keeps the story from wandering too far into politics. Ron Wing contributes outstanding illustrations, especially his depictions of surf life on the Cove. This could have been an excellent book if the kinks were ironed out.

More reviews by KenJenningsJeopardy74

In this book, you are very bored with your home life, so you convince your surfer uncle who lives in California to let you visit him for the whole summer. After you've been there a while, your new friend Jorge disappears and you must find him, perhaps with the help of a gang of surfers called the Surf Monkeys.

I liked this book a lot. It has a consistent plot, a distinct mission to complete, and some interesting characters (including an old hermit who predicts earthquakes). The only things that may go against it for some people (but definitely not for me) are its extremely large number of text pages between choices, and its political bias (this is definitely NOT a book for those of you who like the oil industry) -- it also has a sympathetic portrayal of an undocumented immigrant.

All in all, a good book from Jay Leibold.

More reviews by stonemason