The Oregon Trail #1: The Race to Chimney Rock written by Jesse Wiley and reviewed by Debra Gantz

Summary: This Choose Your Own Adventure in the Oregon Trail series took me right back to the early 90's and playing this game with students in public schools where I was a substitute teacher. (The game had everything and I wanted to know how this book series could capture that excitement, dread, wonder, and risk taking.) Jesse Wiley must have played the game, as well as this book has it all! Backmatter guides you to how to problem solve issues that affected Westward settlers. (A foreword reminds readers to read the backmatter before making their first decision.) There are short sections/chapters of only a few pages and then you face a choice. Choose right and your journey continues. Choose wrong and you may die or be lost or be without supplies including that wagon that is your chance for a better future. I chose well for a bit, but then there was an impossible choice that I did not like at all and I did die. I went back to where I had chosen wrong and made a new choice. This time I finished the journey and ended at Chimney Rock. I did go back and read more with different choices to see what would have happened. In short, this is a fun book and I think my students will like it. 

Straight Talk for Librarians: Note to teachers- If your district requires Westward Expansion knowledge, read on! I have never been a fan of Choose Your Own Adventure books, but this series was a connection for me to my younger years in teaching. If my students do like this series, I will add more for them. I like the connections to history, geography, and life skills (fixing wagons, managing money and supplies, caring for the ill or injured, and hierarchy of the wagon train) for the characters that students may gain more insight from. I played both Oregon Trail and Amazon Trail with my students and their knowledge of locations and animals were directly boosted by these games. I also discovered at my local library that the Oregon Trail game is available on a couple of different game systems. (My library had it!)