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Item - Your Very Own Robot

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(Hardcover edition)
(Hardcover edition)
(Original edition, second (Troll) printing)
(Original edition, second (Troll) printing)
(Original edition, second (Troll) printing)
(Original edition, fifth printing)
(Original edition, yellow cover printing)
(Original edition, red cover printing)
(Dragonlarks reissue, first printing)
(Dragonlarks reissue, full bleed cover)
(Dragonlarks reissue, 4th printing)
(Dragonlarks reissue, 9th printing)
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Combined Summary

Online Full Text: Internet Archive (Original edition, first printing)
Series: Choose Your Own Adventure - Dragonlarks — no. 2
Choose Your Own Adventure for Younger Readers — no. 4
Choose Your Own Adventure Junior — no. 2
Contained In: Choose Your Own Adventure Skylark 1 Box Set (Collection)
Translated Into: Un robot bien à toi (French)
Sevgili robotum (Turkish)
El teu robot particular (Catalan)
Tu robot particular (Spanish)
Um amigo robo (Portuguese)
Author: Montgomery, R. A.
Illustrators: Granger, Paul (pseudonym used by Hedin, Don) (Original edition, yellow cover printing; Hardcover edition; Original edition, fifth printing; Original edition, second (Troll) printing; Original edition, red cover printing; Original edition, first printing)
Newton, Keith (Dragonlarks reissue, full bleed cover; Australian edition; Dragonlarks reissue, 4th printing; Dragonlarks reissue, first printing; Dragonlarks reissue, 9th printing)
Dates: April, 1982 (Hardcover edition)
April, 1982 (Original edition, first printing)
May, 2007 (Dragonlarks reissue, first printing)
ISBNs: 0553050192 / 9780553050196 (Hardcover edition)
0553151495 / 9780553151497 (Original edition, fifth printing, Original edition, first printing)
0553152335 / 9780553152333 (Original edition, yellow cover printing, Original edition, red cover printing)
0553164066 / 9780553164060 (Original edition, second (Troll) printing)
1933390522 / 9781933390529 (Dragonlarks reissue, full bleed cover, Dragonlarks reissue, 4th printing, Dragonlarks reissue, first printing, Dragonlarks reissue, 9th printing)
Length: 54 pages (Hardcover edition, Original edition, first printing, Original edition, second (Troll) printing, Original edition, fifth printing, Original edition, yellow cover printing, Original edition, red cover printing)
52 pages (Dragonlarks reissue, first printing, Dragonlarks reissue, full bleed cover, Dragonlarks reissue, 4th printing, Dragonlarks reissue, 9th printing)
Number of Endings: 12
LC Cataloging in Publication Summary: The reader is asked to make choices which will determine the fate of a discarded robot.
CGally's Thoughts:

I believe I have this one somewhere around the house, but not within easy reach.

Anyway, the story is quite condensed and random. With thieves, a run-in with the law (on your own accord), and even travel to a planet run by robots, there's a lot of odd ground to cover here. It's random alright.

One thing I found disturbing was an ending in which you were disassembled (you are human!) and made into a robot, complete with accompanying illustration. Naturally, the illustration isn't gory, but seeing your head separated from your body with the text reading that you are "made into a robot," along with a long something along the lines of "'BEEP. Whoops!' you say. And no-one ever sees you again." is just incredibly disturbing.

Otherwise, it's R. A. Montgomery randomness, cutified for a younger audience, with the exception of that one messed-up ending.

More reviews by CGally

Demian's Thoughts:

The only real innovation in this book is the inclusion of a blank line where the reader can insert the name he or she gives the robot. Other than that, it's a typical entry in this series. The silly extent to which the story is condensed does prove unintentionally amusing at points.

More reviews by Demian

Kveto's Thoughts:

Recently, I was gifted a few second-hand Choose Your Own Adventure books in English. This was the one that caught my eye first. It seems to be the 2007 re-issue.

A simple story with little text and lots of pictures. It offers up a lot of choice in 69 pages. Most are cute, like "Do you want to paint your robot? Do you want to take your robot to school?" etc. But the story can go in a lot of different directions, such as an ice cream factory, a pirate ship and outer space.

I read it with my 6 year old and it seems the right level of less text, lots of choices. It inspired her to make her own pick a path style book, but hers is about unicorns, as she found robots too much of a "boy" topic.

One of the cutest things is the "kids comments" on the first page. According to Jake, "I liked this book, but it's not safe to build your own robot." Indeed!

More reviews by Kveto

Special Thanks:Thanks to Ken G. for the hardback and reissue cover scans.
Users Who Own This Item: AgathaRaisin79, Ardennes (Reissue), bookwormjeff, breity (15149-5 Bantam-Skylark), Crazyscotsman, Demian (second and fifth printings) (fourth reissue printing), duckhugger, exaquint (1st (brown), 6th (yellow)) (orange reissue, blue 12ending reissue, 13th chooseco), Gartax, gildedlionbooks (Troll Edition, 2nd Printing), Himynameistony, horrorbusiness, jdreller (Reissue), jharvey79, JoshW, katzcollection (original paperback) (non-border cover), KenJenningsJeopardy74, killagarilla, kinderstef, kleme, knginatl (brown, brown "book fair", brown "Troll", yellow, red, hardback, w/border reissue, w/o border reissue) (brown, brown "book fair", brown "Troll", yellow, red, hardback, w/border reissue, w/o border reissue), Kveto, Lullyph, marcfonline, nelsondesign, newt3425, Nomad, ntar (1st print & 2nd cover), plowboy, Pseudo_Intellectual, Radical347, rolipo26, rtaylor352, SherlockHolmes, spragmatic, strawberry_brite, ThaRid (1 red cover, 1 brown), ThisIslandEarth, twar, Uraniborg (red cover), waktool (Original, 1st printing (hardcover); Original, 1st printing (brown, $1.75); Original, 5th printing (brown, $1.75); Original, 6th printing (yellow, $1.95)) (Junior, CN 1st printing), wonderfly, Yalius, yunakitty
Users Who Want This Item: exaquint (brown book fair, brown troll, red), Ffghtermedic, NEMO, ntar (dragonlarks)
Users with Extra Copies: exaquint - orange reissue, blue 12 endings reissue
kinderstef - 1st cover
ntar - 2
SherlockHolmes - I did not collect this series and would be willing to part with this item.

Known Editions

Hardcover edition
Original edition, first printing
Original edition, second (Troll) printing
Original edition, fifth printing
Original edition, yellow cover printing
Original edition, red cover printing
Dragonlarks reissue, first printing
Dragonlarks reissue, full bleed cover
Dragonlarks reissue, 4th printing
Dragonlarks reissue, 9th printing
Australian edition

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