The Cave of Time

 The Cave of Time (1979) by Edward Packard

As I've mentioned in a previous review of Choose Your Own Adventure books, this series was a staple of my young reading life. I read the first ones from the local library and went on to collect numerous more of my own. They were terrific stories--bringing the reader into the story even more directly than the usual experience because the reader becomes the protagonist and is regularly presented with choices to determine their next action and the plot's outcome. The stories covered every sort of adventure from mysteries to science fiction tales to journeys under the sea and through the air by hot air balloon. When I was trying to find likely books to interest my son, I loaned out my collection and bought more. I'm not sure that he was ever as fascinated with them as I had been, but they did help my reluctant reader.

The Cave of Time was one of the first CYOA books I read. I got it through the Scholastic Book Club at school--along with The Mystery of Chimney Rock (my all-time favorite) and By Ballon to the Sahara. It was a great introduction to time travel for this young reader. I had a great time visiting the past and future...and even a place of timelessness. Revisiting the book now, the story lines are a bit simplistic and I wish for a bit more detail, but it was still great fun to see where my choices would take me. ★★★★

First lines: You've hiked through Snake Canyon once before when visiting your Uncle Howard at Red Creek Ranch, but you never noticed any cave entrance. It looks like a recent rock slide has uncovered it.