Choose Your Own Adventure Books Increase Kids' Reading Comprehension and Literacy Rates More Quickly Than Linear Stories.
Waitsfield, VT (PRWEB) May 11, 2016 -- Chooseco is celebrating its 10th anniversary this spring, after re-launching the world-famous Choose Your Own Adventure® series back in 2006.
In the early 2000s, R. A. Montgomery and Shannon Gilligan took the leap to establish their own publishing house and revamp the beloved children’s book series. The small company ran from a converted farmhouse in Northern Vermont and in 2006, the original series’ 18 bestselling titles hit stores, with new artwork and updated text.
Today, Chooseco is responsible for 10 million books in print in 15 languages and 20 territories. The publisher keeps a healthy backlist of fan favorites alive, with 42 “classics” in the style of the most popular books in the original series, for ages 7-12; 3 “Choose Your Own Nightmares;” and 24 “Dragonlark” titles for beginning readers with colorful artwork.
“If we ever had any doubt of the importance of our publishing ‘project’ it was dispelled this past winter with the results of an independent study out of the Educational Psychology program at Miami University,” Gilligan, Chooseco’s current CEO and Publisher, recently observed.
“We are pleased to announce at BEA that Miami University’s study found what we had long suspected: that Choose Your Own Adventure brings students to fluency faster than linear books. The teacher who conducted the study found that students reading Choose reached 17% greater comprehension than students using linear books, in the same amount of time.”
Gilligan continues, “We’ve heard this anecdotally from generations of educators, and are so pleased to finally have conclusive data.”
Hofmann’s research found:
Students using Choose Your Own Adventure books gained an average of 23 more words per minute than those using linear books. The seemingly minor change of using interactive stories over traditional linear narratives made a significant impact on reading fluency.
An experienced educator, quoted in the research study, reaffirms the Publishers’ long-held belief of the effectiveness of interactive books in the classroom, as well as the study’s findings:
“The Choose Your Own texts made my students gain a deeper understanding of plot structure. My students were able to tell me precisely the events and choices they made that impacted the resolution. They felt empowered to be able to go back and change what happened and get a different outcome, which supported cause and effect relationships as well.”
“R. A. Montgomery always described Choose as a ‘stealth reading program,’” adds Melissa Bounty, Associate Publisher and Vice President. “It has the uncanny ability to engage kids who just won’t pick anything else up. The results of this study were very edifying after hearing hundreds of success stories from teachers and parents.”
Chooseco debuts something entirely different in its 2016 Fall list with YA thriller Weregirl, a linear book detailing the magical transformation of cross-country runner Nessa Kurland into a shape-shifter after a seemingly chance encounter with a trapped wolf.
Chooseco will be celebrating its anniversary, these exciting findings and the publication of Weregirl at the upcoming Book Expo of America in Chicago May 11-14. Please stop by Booth #1730 to pick up a copy of our whitepaper detailing the results of the 2016 Choose Your Own Adventure Reading Study, and to pick up a print galley of Weregirl.
Weregirl eGalley is also available at http://www.weregirl.com, NetGalley: https://s2.netgalley.com/catalog/book/88615, and Edelweiss: http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com/ProductDetailPage.aspx?sku=1937133559&start=1.
About Chooseco
Founded in 2003, Chooseco publishes The Choose Your Own Adventure series. Widely commended for its appeal to reluctant readers, the series is the fifth bestselling book series of all time and fourth bestselling children’s book series, with more than 265 million copies sold in over 40 languages. Each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character’s actions in response to the plot and its outcome. Find out more at http://www.cyoa.com.
About Megan Hofmann
Megan Hofmann began work in education while completing her B.S. in Educational Psychology from Miami University (Ohio). She has taught a range of students in different settings, ranging from instructing an emotionally disturbed self-contained classroom in an urban public school district to teaching graduate students at Miami University. She currently is partnered in a co-taught closed classroom at Talawanda City Schools, where she uses authentic learning situations to research and problem-solve issues in education.
To find out more about the Choose Your Own Adventure Whitepaper Study, Weregirl, or other Chooseco books, please contact Elizabeth Adelman at webmail(at)chooseco(dot)com or by telephone at 802-496-2598.
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Elizabeth Adelman, Chooseco, http://www.cyoa.com, +1 (802) 496-2598, [email protected]
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