I remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books; they were quite popular back in the early eighties when I was a school librarian (in another life). With the books the premise or gimmick was that they were written in second when you got to certain pages in the book, you were presented with a choice. Choose A and go to page X; choose B and go to page Y. Some choices were disastrous and ended the story rather quickly. Other choices prolonged the adventure and led to more choices.

In this DVD the idea is much the same. At certain key points in the movie, the viewer is given a choice as to how the adventure will continue. Stay in the airplane or parachute out? Follow the footprints or go back to camp? Each choice made leads the movie adventurers in a different direction. The DVD case says you can choose from eleven possible stories.

The main characters are stereotypical, multi-cultural, adventurous kids who go to visit their uncle in Nepal.There’s a bold, curious girl named Christa, a nerdy, cautious brother named Benjamin, and their adopted-from-Guatemala kid brother, Marco. The parents are missing-in-action. The dialog is cartoonish; the animation is adequate; and the story, or stories, is fairly predictable. Also, be warned, the humor is clean but juvenile, several jokes about “colder than a penguin’s butt,” for example.

Nevertheless, my urchins were fascinated, going back over and over again to try out the different alternatives and choices. There’s information in the the course of the story about Nepal and the Himalayas, if you’re looking for educational value. And there’s an extra 28 minute documentary on the same DVD entitled How People Live in Nepal —which, of course, my adventurers had no interest in watching. I plan to make them watch it anyway in a couple of weeks when we get to India and Nepal in our around-the-world study.

Coming in 2007 & 2008:The Lost Jewels and The Mystery of The Maya. You can order the movie The Abominable Snowman, at amazon.com. Or go to the official website for the series to learn more about the DVD’s and to enter related contests.