RA Montgomery, author of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, dead at 78

THE author behind the phenomenally successful Choose Your Own Adventure book series has died, aged 78.

Filmmaker Nathan Penlington embarks on a quest to reunite “Choose Your Own Adventure” books with their original owners in his interactive doco, Choose Your Own Documentary, which is screening at the Antenna Documentary Film Festival which screens in Sydney this October 14-19. See antennafestival.org.

THE beloved children’s author behind the popular Choose Your Own Adventure book series has died at the age of 78.

RA Montgomery passed away on November 9 at his home in Vermont, US.

His family has not revealed the cause of death.

The prolific writer created the first role-playing novel, Journey Under the Sea, in 1977, as part of his then-titled The Adventures of You series.

Make your choices ... the books positioned their readers as astronauts, detectives and other heroic figures.

Prolific ... RA Montgomery authored over 200 books in the series, which peaked in popularity in the 1980s.

The collection was later renamed Choose Your Own Adventure after its acquisition by publishing bosses at Bantam Books.

Montgomery went on to pen more than 200 titles in the series, which has been translated into 40 different languages and sold more than 250 million copies around the world, making it one of the best-selling children’s book collections in the world.

His most recent instalment was released in September.

A statement issued by the books’ current publishers at Chooseco reads: “Montgomery, who was passionate about education all his life, felt that interactive fiction was critical to reluctant readers in achieving reading fluency, which is the final stage of achieving true literacy.”

Escape From Fire Island ... the Choose Your Own Adventure format was much-copied, as in this gay-themed romp.

Affectionate mimicry ... Neil Patrick Harris’ recent memoir urged readers to make choices about his career.

The format of the much-loved books, which requires the reader to make choices to guide the narrative, has been affectionately lampooned many times, most recently by actor Neil Patrick Harris, who titled his recent memoir Choose Your Own Autobiography.