The highly interactive Pick a Story series so far consists of four books written by Sarah Coyle with bold and colourful illustrations by Adam Walker-Parker. The series brings the well-loved choose-your-own-adventure concept to the modern picture book. Young readers choose between three completely different worlds – allowing them to change the story as it happens. With endless story paths to be taken, the adventure is always different.

Packed with activities! Each page includes an activity, such as search-and-find, odd-one-out, mazes and more, woven seamlessly into the narrative – perfect for immersing and engaging young readers.

The latest instalment out this month is A Monster Princess Shark Adventure. When a young girl's teddy goes missing at the beach readers are invited to direct her search. Has Old Ted been taken by a monster? Or pinched by a princess? Or snapped up by a shark?

In the first title of the series, A Pirate Alien Jungle Adventure, we are enlisted to help a young boy in the search for his dog, Trouble. Has Trouble been stolen by aliens? Or pilfered by pirates? Is she exploring the jungle?

A Dinosaur Unicorn Robot Adventure is all about a missing birthday cake. Has the cake been stolen by dinosaurs? Or taken by robots? Has it been snatched by unicorns?

A Superhero Mermaid Dragon Adventure has readers seeking a missing picture for show and tell. Has the picture been taken by dragons? Or pinched by mermaids? Has it been pilfered by a superhero? YOU decide!

LoveReading4Kids had a chance to chat with author Sarah Coyle and here is what she had to say:

Talk us through the concept of the Pick a Story picturebooks.
The concept for the Pick a Story series is super simple: the readers get to choose what happens in the story! Kids LOVE making choices, but often those choices are pretty limited, otherwise it'd be all midnight football and fudge for breakfast. Human beings tend to feel more ownership over decisions they make themselves, so I am attempting to keep our youngest readers glued to the page until the very end of the book.

Adam Walker-Parker's illustrations are brilliant - bright and lively and full of fun. What is your working process, and how do you collaboratively create the pages?
Adam's artwork absolutely makes the Pick a Story books. Adam captures each member of the huge cast of characters beautifully and adds richness to each and every spread. In a nutshell, we go back and forth until the books are perfect. I write the stories, Adam brings them to life with colours and bodies and faces AND THEN THE TWEAKS BEGIN. Most of these tweaks are about me needing to say more with less so there's enough space to show the visual story. Brevity is something I'm working on!

Any further additions to the choose-your-own-adventure planned?
Oh my, YES! . . . Oh, you want details? Well, it's all a bit top secret, so all I'll say is that the themes for the next Pick a Story were chosen by ACTUAL REAL LIFE READERS. Watch this space to find out what's on the menu soon!

The books are a great way to encourage children to tell their own stories too. Can you give us some storytelling tips for our young readers.
I always like to start with a character. They can be human, animal, or anything else in the known universe. Then I figure out what that character really, REALLY wants or really, REALLY needs. In the way of getting that thing, I put: A PROBLEM. Your character's attemps to overcome the problem gives you your story! Drama is conflict, people! The Pick a Story books always have 'the lovely ending', but you can have any ending you like: happy, funny, even scary or sad. I challenge your readers to try several and see which is the most interesting!

Your top five picture book recommendations?
If All the World Were . . . by Joseph Coelho & Allison Colpoys
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers
Ballet Kids by Holly Sterling
Mel Fell by Corey R Tabor
Astro Girl by Ken Wilson-Max
The Something by Rebecca Cobb

If you could choose a real life adventure, what would it be?
 Ooh, this is the best question! What WOULD it be? SO MANY ANSWERS! Okay, so there's gotta be some fairies, naturally flying is involved and there are MANY near brushes with lava/swashbuckling swords/vampires all slapped against a twillight-lit cloudscape featuring multiple castles and cheese. I like cheese.

What does LoveReading4Kids mean to you?
Every child in this flawed and gorgeous world deserves to be given the best opportunities to develop that life long love of reading that so many of us are lucky to enjoy. LoveReading4Kids is on a mission to help provide those opportunities. It's something we should all be doing if we don't want to end up back in the bad, old days where instead of telling stories, we just sat and stared at tree trunks. I mean, I LOVE trees, but COME ON! There might be a few reasons why we developed opposable thumbs, but one of the best ones is so we could turn the page.

@WriterSCoyle

Visit the book pages below to buy a book, find out what our expert reviewers thought and to download an extract.