You're the Hero: Jungle Adventure

Lily Murray's Jungle Adventure is a great, little guide on how to become a hero and make your own jungle adventure story!

I think this is a really creative book! It's not something I've seen a lot of before - create your own adventure books are normally pick your own ending. This one totally impressed me with it's imagination! You get to pick the adventure from each page - who do you want to be? What are you going to wear? What are we going to do? Etc. There are some story prompts to help the reader along the way, but it's mostly up to the reader's imagination on what's going to happen.

There's little pictures for every single possible option for the youngings to pick too! I think this is a great way to get kids interacting with story telling. You could use this as a parent as a unique bed time story or bonding time activity, or as an educator. It's also great that there are so many options on how to create this story to. It's not just a couple of endings, it's multiple possible adventures. Just use your imagination and creativity, and you'll be set!

Overall, I think this is a super smart book! It's an ingenious way to make reading a little more fun.

Five out of five stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for giving me an opportunity to pick up this book!

A perfect book to use in school with the lower levels, or lower-to middle-level English pupils! The story is fun and has a lot of different exciting and funny options for the reader to choose from, and the diversity in the characters you can be and meet along the way is perfect! I also like the way the book guides the reader in their choices. This book could be a great tool for pupils to write their own stories as well!

Review to come in two days to my blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

The second book in this series (or well the second book I am reading) and this time we are going on a crazy and fun adventure in the jungle! Last time we were pirates, now we are adventurers! Explorers of the great unknown! Yes!

I was so excited to see this book, I just got confirmation on the pirate book and thought I would also request this book. I got accepted, yay, and here we are with a brand-new adventure. Just like the last time we can pick various choices spread in front of us on two pages. From who you want to be, to picking the way you want to travel (with some insane and delightful options), to well everything. The possibilities are huge. There is a ton of diversity which makes me happy. You can even be animals! 

Like the previous book I will tell you what I picked/how my story went. For this story I picked a very sweet looking snake as my hero and dressed him up in a fabulous hairband and fairy wings. So shiny! I decided we should go to swim in the jungle river (I just did some gardening and OH boy I could use some coolness). Of course one can't go on an adventure without equipment, so we packed up a cuddly toy (very important), a compass, and my favourite storybook. I decided that as a snake I shouldn't go alone so I took with me a band of pocket-sized people and a bat. I thought it would be cool to go to the river in a cable car as the river also has a fun waterfall. The cable car went over various pretty sites including a veg patch with delicious looking food, over hilltops and finally over the waterfall. Oh my, someone is here to greet us! Thankfully it a friend from home, another snake named Fred. There were a lot of options for us to sleep/hang out and as a snake I definitely loved that abandoned temple! But what is this! Oh no! My restful vacation is disturbed by a cruel creature hunter named Bob. He wants to capture me in a net. But using my special snakey moves I do a hypnotic jungle boogie! *slither slither* Oh my, I found treasure while escaping and I loved that magic flute so that came with me. I sail back home and thanks to my adventures I become famous! 

As you can see many many options. At times I just wanted to pick everything! It seems to follow pretty much the same pattern as the Pirates book. I am not sure how I felt about the enemy suddenly appearing, I thought the story was fine until that moment.

I would once again recommend this fun and delightful book to everyone. I think kids will love it and it is perfect for this time that everyone has to stay at home. This will keep your kids entertained plus I can imagine some fun craft projects you can do with this.

I recently read and reviewed this author's Pirate Adventure which I highly recommended.  This is another entry, in what appears to be a series, that will engage a child while encouraging them to use their imagination.  This time the adventure is in the jungle where life can be pretty exciting.


This book has vibrant and engaging illustrations.  To give you a flavor, the book begins with choosing the character the child wants to be; that is followed by the clothes the reader wants to wear. Children can then choose why they want to go on the advenure and what they will need to bring.  And so it goes from there through this enchanting title until the reader gets to the end.


The book can be read multiple time with different choices being made on each occasion. Look at this title with a child you know.  I think that you will both enjoy the experience.


Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.

adventure. Each page you are asked a question beginning with who do you want to be. You read what you next assignment is; turn the page and pick again. So much to chose from with many details. You can change the story 100x to make it more fun and engaging.

A Special Thank you to Quarto Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

I am reviewing this book with the help of my 6 year old (first grader). We read this book together so we could both offer our opinions.

You’re The Hero: Jungle Adventure is the second book of this type that we read together by this author. As I noted in my review of the Pirate Adventure, in these books you get to choose a character, props and outfit, setting, accompanying travelers, mode of travel, problem, enemy you’ll face, way to escape, etc. The story is mostly told in pictures of the choices (with accompanying labels), and you create the story in your head.

For example, the first time through this book, my son chose to be a Jaguar who wears rollerblades and sunglasses, who is exploring the jungle to find hidden treasure. He chose to take a map, a compass, and a cuddly toy, and to be accompanied by a snake tamer and a band of pocket sized people. He took a helicopter through the Mountains of Doom, and was greeted there by an alien, who he hung out with in a treehouse. He had to face a cursed mummy who wanted to feed him to a praying mantis, and escaped by making an explosive and blasting his way out. He was rewarded with tickets to the jungle fun fair, and on his way home he found a jungle treasure map. What a cliffhanger!

My 6 year old gave this book 5 stars, and liked it even better than the Pirate Adventure. He said “I think other kids my age would like this book too.”

As a parent with an educator brain, I could see this book being helpful for struggling readers, as there isn’t much fluent reading to be done beyond the descriptions and directions, but it still gives an opportunity to create a story in their imaginations. I also think this would be a great book for multiple children to experience together- they can each make their own unique story as they go through the book together, and a stronger reader could help read the descriptions to others, though the illustrations often speak for themselves.
We read this book via a digital device, but it would definitely lend itself better to being read via a physical copy.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Lily Murray, and Quarto Publishing Group/Ivy Kids for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a great way for kids to learn story telling in a fun and creative way. It is a great way to engage children while creating critical decision making tools. I really enjoyed reading this book and discovering what adventure the kids would like to go on next! I would love to have more of these in my classroom.

I clicked on this not knowing anything about it, and assuming it was some kind of junior choose-your-own-adventure book, perhaps a comic book one. But no. The whole shtick of the book – and others in the series – is that you hit the regular beats in a jungle-based adventure drama, such as deciding what kind of explorer you'll be (or even if you'll be a butterfly), where you'll go and why and how, and every double-page spread offers you a possible selection. I'm sure a good home tutor could come up with a similar thing to do as a parlour game, where imaginative children could answer the prompts and pick enough things to stumble on a reasonable narrative, but this is still worth a good look. The fact there are so many choices per spread – over a dozen things to select from at every turn – means that while this might be a modern narrative form of those things where you flip over the top third of a person, the middle third and the legs to present a wacky body shape and costume out of numerable possibilities, there is still a great scope for coming up with something new countless times. Also, it will generate an interest in published adventure stories, which the child will like as not find fun – but they will perhaps enjoy more the fact they'll have 'written' their own first.

Jungle Adventure is a great book for keeping kids entertained multiple times. You can read the book ten times and never have the same adventure. The illustrations were beautiful and engaging. The book was fun and interactive. I would highly recommend this book for car trips or quarantines!

I absolutely wish these books existed when I was a young, aspiring writer. Maybe I would have stuck to it!! Great illustrations and easy to follow instructions on how to create your own jungle story.

This is a fun read for kids with more emphasis on the fun and less on the read. The lively colourful illustrations cover several suggestions on each page and as you go, you pick who you are, what you bring, what you want to do, who your companions are, the path you take, how you travel, where you hang out, the enemy who attacks, what they try to do to foil you, and how you escape. Then of course you can have a party or decide if you have found a treasure map, are heading home etc.

The characters are nicely inclusive with ages, genders, cultures and disability represented. Or you opt to be a jungle animal (or fantasy or SF). This looks to me like a series of writing prompts or play acting prompts. The kids can use the options chosen to write a short story. Then they can start again and be someone new. Exploring identity is just one of the great ideas. By picking more or fewer options on each page, they can string out the story to ridiculous length or complete it in a few minutes. The kids can also learn if the items that look cool on the street are practical for a jungle.

As the majority of the information will come from the kids and not the book, there is a limit to the learning they will get from this book, but they may be prompted to research elsewhere. I suggest ages from five to ten will get good value, especially a mix of ages so older kids can help younger make choices. Great food for the imagination.

I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

I enjoyed making a whole new story with my son, he enjoyed pointing at different options and making the animal noises (he is only 18 months) but I cant wait to enjoy this with him when he is older as I just know he will love
picking the options and telling me why!

I really like this range of books, I read Pirate adventure with my son and so we were very excited for this one,
they are absolutely perfect for those children who love to have the same book every night but whose parents cannot take one more night reading the same words.

Choose your own adventure books are always cool. I liked the beautiful illustrations and the prompts and choices. It doesn't seem like a true choose your own adventure as nothing really happens, but it does inspire storytelling. I will be using this for my 8-year-old to help her form a whole story since she loves adventures. I think any young and aspiring writer will benefit from this book and would be great for creative storytelling in classrooms as well as a boredom buster at home.

This is a great style of book. We love choosing how to travel the jungle together. Not only do you get to read with your child, but you also get to let them choose the adventure. This makes reading even more fun for them, as well as helping them with their listening skills, words and ability to connect images with letters. The illustrations are colourful and great.

We read this book before bedtime last night. The kids (3rd grade and Kindergarten) loved it so much, we came back to look for more. We're excited to check out the Pirate adventure tonight. Last nights bedtime was so full of yelling and giggles, that my husband came to see what we were reading. Not our quietest bedtime, but definitely a fun one. Fun for all ages!

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

I love this series of books and this is my second read in this series. I really enjoy sharing these with my daughter who absolutely loves doing the adventure books. Through this book you choose who your going to be, what you wear, who helps your etc and string a story together in the process. So many different stories to make and so many different outcomes. These are such great books for sparking childrens imaginations!

Jungle Adventure is a very cute introduction to CYOA for early readers. Each 2-page spread lays out the options for the reader, encouraging the child (or parent) to create their own story. This would be good for creative families but not so good for those with less imagination.

I test drove this book with a couple of 1st grade readers this morning with a zoom screen share. They loved it. The engagement with the book and each other in crafting their story was really fun to watch. They were eager for the next page and the next. I'm sure if our half hour wasn't over, we would have had another adventure. Will be great for classroom free reading time and for sparking writing ideas.

I absolutely loved this book. It reminded me both of the goosebumps choose your story and where's Waldo from when I was a kid. I loved how there were so many choices for each prompt. You can also be extra creative and make up a story as you go along with the adventure choices.

This is an excellent title for introducing nature to those curious about nature. The book design is excellent and allows information to be resented in a layered and appealing manner. Text is presented in 'bite-sized' chunks and simplified manner.The lists are attractively illustrated. The theme itself is important for children to go and explore the nature. A note about the cognitive and psychological benefits of interacting with nature would be appropriate for this book.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I enjoyed this jnonfiction book that is actually a choose your own adventure type book that kids will really enjoy.

Its an adventurous book. You pick who you are, what you take with you, whom you bring along, where you go, how you go, whom do you meet, how you overcome your problem there, etc. It is a fun ride. Kids will enjoy it. Illustrations are bright, colourful and wonderful.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC

You're the Hero: Jungle Adventure - by Lily Murray
Published by: Ivy Kids
Pub Date: 7 Apr 2020

This book had myself and my class laughing for ages! For a few years now there have been several books in which you can create your own plots by choosing certain options and then turning to that page. I remember one girl in my class being fascinated with one of these book types for ages! Murray’s book is an updated version of this model. It reaches an even younger audience because it doesn’t require a lot of heavy reading or page finding. On each page is a certain aspect of the story, which you choose. Such as: what you will wear or where the adventure takes place. You then simply turn the page for the next part of the story! The pictures are beautiful and inviting and no matter how many times you read it, there are 100s of different ways to tell the story! A great, fun and interactive read!!

Thanks Quarto Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!!!
Love the idea that you get to "Choose your own Adventure"~Each time you read the story you get a different ending!!! Love It! Great Illustrations. By far this one is my favorite!!!!!

I’ve always loved choose your own adventure books, and this one is a really lovely choose your own adventure style book for young readers.

There are so many choices the kids can make and come up with a really exciting and adventurous story.

This book can be re-read many times and kids will not get bored of it, as they can go through the book again and take many different paths to make up different stories.

The illustrations are really wonderful and eye catching.

I would recommend this book for all young kids who are looking for an adventure!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader’s copy for an honest review.

A great going on an adventure book. You choose your own story. A book you can go back to again and again as the adventure will never be the same. A good book for children of any age :) Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

This was a very cute children’s book. The illustrations were beautiful, colorful and exciting and the story was fun. My children really enjoyed reading it.

Bold and bright illustrations accompany different story elements where the reader is the author! The reader chooses and goes on their own adventure! I would suggest using a notebook and writing out your story so you can read the end result. Then start all over! As a teacher I’d love to do this but skip a page and discuss how missing an important story element, say a setting, makes a difference in your writing.

My kids and I love these books. They are so much fun and the kids love actually looking at the choices. I was worried that they would just say "All of them" but they didn't. They took their time to tell their story. Super cute book. I look forward to more.