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Item - Cool School

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(1997 reprint)
(1997 reprint)
(1997 reprint)
(1997 reprint)
(Later printing)
(Later printing)
(Later printing)

Combined Summary

Series: You Make It Happen — no. 1
Author: Marsden, John
Illustrator: Stolz, Roman
Dates: 1995 (First printing)
1997 (1997 reprint)
ISBN: 0330358677 / 9780330358675 (1997 reprint)
Length: 200 pages (89 sections)
Number of Endings: 44
Cover Price: AU$8.95 (1997 reprint)
AU$10.95 (Later printing)
Special Thanks: 1997 reprint:
Thanks to Ken G. for pointing this title out and providing front/back cover scans.
Later printing:
Thanks to Ryan Lynch for the scans.
nev's Thoughts:

This is an odd one. It's not so much a "choose your own adventure" as it is a "choose how the story unfolds". Most of the decisions are more about what you'd like to happen. For example "If the teacher is nice to you, turn to X, if the teacher is nasty, turn to Y." Along with that, the world is not necessarily consistent - in one path the principal is a woman, in another it's a man - and this is the case for many of the story-lines - characters and situations can play out in vastly different ways.

Of note is that the author tries to make 'you' non-gender specific. Names for other characters are androgynous, so when you get passed a note from 'Sam' and go on a date, it could either be a boy or a girl. Note that I say 'tries.' He doesn't quite pull it off - I asked my daughter whether she realised this and she said that she thought the main 'you' character was definitely a boy.

Also of note, there's a nice cameo of the author's book Tomorrow When the World Began and there are a lot of references to Australian stuff.

Oh and one more thing, except for a lone exception where you have 3 choices, the paragraph structure is a binary tree - always 2 choices and no decision ever interacts with any other path.

More reviews by nev

Users Who Own This Item: Demian, jdreller, knginatl, Ryuran333, waktool (Original, AU 1st printing (large); Original, AU 1999 reprint (small); Reissue, AU 2014 reprint)
Users Who Want This Item: NEMO, Pseudo_Intellectual

Known Editions

First printing
1997 reprint
Later printing

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