I love the interactive nature of this book. It's more than just a simple choose your own adventure. This is a graphic novel that really requires active participation It feels like something that would be a different experience with every read.

Very fun "choose your own adventure" style book that will engage and delight children. This will be highly appealing to reluctant readers.

As a child I loved chops your own adventure books and this was a great reminder of that. It would be a great introduction to that kind of book for younger children and less confident or reluctant readers.

The pictures were bright and there were just enough words to tell the story. The story was fun and engaging and I imagine that each time you read it a different story could take place.

It was a little difficult to navigate electronically, however as a physical book I would have loved to flick backwards and forwards finding the necessary panels to help my story unfold.

I really liked that there were familiar aspects to the story from the world of Fairy Tales such as the gingerbread cottage, which would make it ideal for exploring retellings of traditional tales in school, particularly if linked with different formats for books other than the traditional cover to cover story (magazines, comics, graphic novels etc)
I’ll certainly be recommending that school purchase this and similar titles for our school library!

Many thanks to the publishers for a copy of this book for review via NetGalley

*This was generously sent to me from NetGalley*

I enjoyed the aspect of this graphic novel. I love the multi-view and choices. I really enjoy choose-your-own adventure books and even though this graphic novel is targeted towards a younger audience, I did even the characters and the different choices. My favourite part of this graphic novel is definitely the art style, it is so cute. I originally chose Pocus so next time I’ll go with Hocus and see what he got up to in the story!

I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid and I’ve loved graphic novels since then so a combination of these in game form seemed like a trifecta that couldn’t fail. In Hocus & Pocus you have the choice of character and which magical creature you will take on your adventure. Aimed at kids in middle school this interactive graphic novel includes “choices, puzzles, mysteries, and powerups”. For this adventure you will need a die, pencil and eraser.

Pocus has pink hair so naturally she was who I wanted to be for my first adventure. My choice of magical creature was also easy; the Boxobullfrog, “who keeps a bunch of weird things in its mouth to take when you need them”. I barely looked at the other options. Why wouldn’t I want a creature that produces handy weirdness when required?!

So with my character and creature chosen I took off on my adventure and fairly soon I was lost. I ended up on the exact same path in the forest several times and I thought for a while that I was going to be lost forever. There were times where I wandered around paths with no story. I went from a panel where all I needed to do was choose a number, flipped to the number and found another panel where all I needed to do was choose a number.

On my second adventure I decided to be Hocus with his hair sprayed pompadour. I kept my Boxobullfrog because “weird things in its mouth”! There was no other option for me although this little critter wasn’t as useful to me this time around. While I didn’t get lost on a path this time I had to return to the map of the castle so many times I felt the urge to scream in frustration. If I wound up at the Groundhog Day map again in a future adventure I’d write down each number I followed from it so I didn’t accidentally wind up at the same place more than once.

There are rules to follow regarding whether your magical creature is awake or asleep which involve searching for its food in the drawings and marking boxes on your Adventure Tracker. I probably would have loved this part when I was in the age group the book is intended for but now that I’m old it felt too much like homework to me and so I may have cheated, deciding that my magical creature was always going to be awake when the story gave me the option of obtaining their help. I expect a lot of kids will enjoy making notes each time they find some food for their creature or a star.

Because my brain has a habit of connecting pieces of information that have no relevance to one another (thanks, brain!) this book reminded me of an article I read last week where someone was discussing the differences between Pass the Parcel from the good ol’ days and now. Back when I was a child sometimes the music stopped on you during a game and sometimes it didn’t. When the next layer was opened there’d be a cheap plastic toy or a lolly or nothing. Apparently every layer now has a toy (that’s not some cheap plastic thing) and everyone has to win something or they’ll feel left out. Hold on; my brain is about to try to connect the dots for you.

In this story it felt as though no matter what I chose everything would end up fine in the end and that it was more an illusion of choice than the real deal. There was always the possibility in the Choose Your Own Adventures of my childhood that the wrong choice could be dangerous for the character and potentially lead to their demise but when I read this graphic novel straight through I didn’t uncover anything dastardly, which was disappointing. I was encouraged by the amount of panels I came across when I read from cover to cover that I hadn’t already seen so you could potentially read this a number of times and discover different parts of the story, albeit with the same ending.

The illustrations were cute. I particularly liked the tree at the crossroads in the Woods of the Treemen that looked like it was shrugging, not knowing which path to choose either.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quirk Books for granting my wish and giving me the opportunity to read this book. I’d give this 3.5 stars but am rounding up.

The Legend of Grimm's Woods (Hocus & Pocus #1) by Gorobei Manuro Book Review
Sarah: I've been waiting for the opportunity to feature some kid lit on Really Into This for a while. Lately, my family is REALLY Into Comics & Graphic Novels. as an avid fan of only plain old fiction, this is a world I am able to discover alongside my family. It's a lot of fun so far. As soon as I saw The Legend of Grimm's Woods Hocus & Pocus #1, I was instantly intrigued. I had a feeling my Channa, who is a middle-grade reader would enjoy it.

Channa: I first thought this book may be a little weird & cheesy. As soon as I started reading it, it was the opposite of that. It's entertaining & really cool. I really like that it's a do-your-own adventure book. This is different. Some of the twists are really surprising. Like, I didn't expect Little Red Riding Hood to be evil!

A Book With Rules?
Sarah: Quickly, I reviewed the rules with Channa. Although it took a few minutes & a few repetitions of instructions, she got it.

Channa: Figuring out the rules is a little tough at first. After reading it twice, I understood what I would need to do.

Sarah: One thing that is interesting about this book is the added interactive elements. So, readers need to keep track of stars collected along the way. At the end of the book, the stars basically give you a grade of how well you performed in your journey. Another element is the feeding of your animal. Readers select between 3 animals & you need to take care of them & keep them fed. There are instances where the animals help you along the journey, but other times they need to rest.

Channa: I liked the animals being a part of the story. I wish I had a little more time to do stuff with my pet along the journey. Also, I liked meeting the other animals along the way. I really love wolves. So I liked the meeting the wolf & following the fox any chance I got!

Illustrations
Channa: The illustrations are really good. I like the bright colors & it makes the story more fun.

Sarah: I think the illustrations are beautiful! The colors are bright & vibrant and the lines in the characters have a relaxed feel. Does that even make sense? What I'm trying to say is that looking at the illustrations, you know it's meant to entertain young readers. I find that endearing & enjoyable.

THE VERDICT
We are Really Into This book!

Channa: Although I'm not a huge fan of fantasy, Hocus & Pocus is cool. When I read stuff like Magic Treehouse books, I think it's boring & slow. Reading Hocus & Pocus is fun, entertaining & unique.

Sarah: I think this book is a lot of fun for kids of all ages. As a parent, I like that you get what you put into it. What I mean is you keep track of your stars, you get a grade. You keep your animal fed, it helps you out. Don't be afraid to take on a different persona & take a different path! It's fun no matter what.

Do you have any favorite make your own adventure books we should check out?

Special thanks to Gorobei & Manuro, Quirk Books & NetGalley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Hocus & Pocus is an interesting and modern take on the choose your own adventure concept. Written in graphic novel format, it will entice lovers of that genre. The reader follows either Hocus or Pocus as they try to save 2 children who are lost in the woods. There is a need to make decisions, solve puzzles, and often retrace your steps when some decisions yield nothing. This is one of those books that does not work well in digital format, but should be pretty fun in print form.

Thank you NetGalley and QuirkBooks for our free copy!

We loved that this book will be interactive, and cant wait to pick up a physical copy. However the PDF we received was a bit confusing to use. The pages were not numbered correctly. But that didn't stop us from reading the book! My boys and I loved it. We will be picking up a copy once it comes out!

Coming out the first week in September are two new titles that will give kids something new to do while reading. These “comic books you can play” add game mechanics and pick-your-own-path structures to illustrated stories.

Hocus & Pocus: The Legend of Grimm’s Woods, written by Manuro and illustrated by Gorobei, is inspired by fairy tales. There are witches in gingerbread houses, children lost in the woods, and creature helpers.

The reader chooses one of two siblings, Hocus or Pocus. They also get to pick which magical pet will accompany them. Most panels have a choice that gives a number of a new panel to navigate to, or there are numbers in the art to indicate what’s done next. Sometimes there are mazes or other puzzles. The cute, cartoony art is particularly welcoming.

I love the art style for this book. I've loved comics for some time and now having a comic you can play through is a great experience. The adventure tracker sheets are great for keeping track of what your character is doing and to replay with different choices or characters. The puzzles to solve along the way leading you to different paths remind me of the old "Interplanetary Spy" books combined with the Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf books. I'd definitely recommend this and similar books to those who like a good story, comic, and choices to make.

I  received a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This is a great idea for a story and it would be better in paperback form. It doesn't really work in eBook format.

In Hocus & Pocus, I wasn’t interested in reading the graphic novel for the story itself. I was more interested in the game aspect of it and that it was apparently different. The style in the art was even an added bonus.

Hocus & Pocus is one of those stories where you have a story, but there are choices. It gives you a scenario, a few scenes, and tells you what page to go depending on your choices. However, it is a game instead. You will get a sheet, pick your character and your pet, who differs in their types of advantages. You have to find food and items to collect and you can even be rewarded for good decisions. Each decision leads to a different bit of adventure, but still the same overall story to the ending.

I thought this was rather cute and fun for for children to do. It even offers some valuable lessons as well. There’s a sheet to keep track of your actions and your collections and you can use to know if you can proceed to do certain actions. At the end, there’s a score and you have to compare to your sibling to see who has the better score, or grade. If you have the higher score, you win. However, if your sibling has the higher score, you get to take the adventure all over again until you win. I happened to lose and I may just go the other way to see the other side of the adventure. I may even win this time! The story itself was cute and adorable and fun for the young ones. I would also suggest to have a copy of this in hand other than having it as an ebook.

This book was so much fun! I haven't read a Choose Your Own Adventure book since I was a kid, and the pictures made this better than any I recall from childhood. The story is engaging and I love that there is a worksheet to fill out as you go through to help you remember what choices you made.

Review to be posted on all sites mentioned in my profile when the release date is closer by.

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

How could I resist this book? The cover looked adorable, and I was very curious about the choose your own adventure part. I can't think of another graphic novel like this, so I wanted to try it out.

Welcome to a world full of monsters, witches, magic, and more. Meet Hocus and Pocus (or Pocus and Hocus, which was a bit confusing), these two are the top of their class and are going on a quest to find some lost kids. You have to pick one of these characters and follow them on their quest. Help them out, kick some witches butt, find pets (or not), and more. There are mazes to get lost in,

Some parts are one page long, but most of them are just one or two panels.

I have to say that it didn't work out that well for me. Because this is an ecopy. For instance that chart? I can't print it out (or even save it anywhere to print it out), so I just tried (and failed) to keep track of things. As for flipping back and forth between pages (and finding the corresponding number) was just not working for me. I think it would work better with a physical copy. Now at times I just lost track of the numbers as they corresponded to panels, and not pages, and yes they were located at the bottom of the pages, but at first I mostly looked at the page numbers on the the program.

I also guess that I just found the most boring route ever to try out as first, as I only found one other pet, which I couldn't take with me due to apparently not having followed the right lessons (which seemed odd to me given how awesome these kids are with pets and are on their way to become masters), I found only 8 stars. There was also barely any action. I will give it another shot, though I will not keep track of stars, as that is just way too much effort. :P

So edit, route two. Still following Pocus because she is just the best in my eyes. And my route was slightly longer and more interesting. I gave up on counting the spots on the wolves though, there were too many and some were supertiny and hard to see. So I just disappointed the wolf.

What I would have liked to see was a bad ending, not that everything leads to the same good ending. Every time something happened that wasn't part of the plan the book just guided you back to the right track. And I think a choose your own adventure books should also have bad endings. Come on, not all quests will go well, I wouldn't mind getting lost, or being eaten, or enchanted by the witch.

The art is just so much fun, I love and adore the style. The designs on the characters are so cute.

All in all, I still loved reading this even if it didn't work out and it missed some things. I would recommend it, but not the ecopy, but the normal book.

The subtitle: "The Legend of Grimm's Woods The Comic Book You Can Play" is misleading. Yes, if it's a print copy, then I'm pretty sure you could, and maybe it's entertaining for young kids. Unfortunately, I'm the sort of reviewer who only gets the ebook version to look at, which is fine by me, because I love trees, but you can't do with the ebook what you can presumably do quite readily with the print version, and no one has bothered to create the same effect in the ebook - which is eminently possible these days, so it felt a bit like switch and bait.

It's the old style book where you read a section, make your choice, and based on that choice, you're directed to page this or page that to pursue your course of action. The only twist here seems to be that you have a choice of choices in that if you're playing as Hocus, you choose one option, or as Pocus, you choose the other. In addition to this, the book requires players to use sheets to track and calculate progress and success. These are useless in the ebook, so you technically cannot play the game properly, and since there are only five sheets, you're going to be doing a lot of Xeroxing if you want to play more than five times.

The adventure was a bit uninspiring for me and the colors were a bit too neon for my taste, but again I'm not the intended audience. I went back and forth on this trying to decide how to rate it and in the end, the truth is that all I can do is rate the version I was sent, and I cannot commend buying the ebook version because it's a fail when it comes to trying to do what the book says you can do.

In this case it was not a matter of turning to a page, which would have been relatively easy, but to finding a comic panel - which was a nightmare in an ebook, when a simple link to tap on could have solved that problem. How hard would it have been to have had a small image of Hocus and one of Pocus, so you could tap the relevant image to go to the panel you wanted? Not putting in links is not only lazy, it's downright abusive and so I cannot commend such a book. It would be at best a disappointment for children and at worst, an irritation. It's not a good idea to irritate children! Even in the print version, I can't imagine younger children being able to play the game and I can't imagine older children being very interested in it.

4 stars! Hocus & Pocus! Super cute story!
Another great summer vacation read for my 7 year old!
She loved this book!

Choose your own adventure in a comic book format. The graphics are crisp and adorable.great color palette. The fun adventure and artwork reminds me of the game app, Tiny Thief. Great adventure but best viewed on print. Can’t wait for more adventures in the future.

This is so much fun and so inventive. I had a digital copy so it didn't work *quite* as well but I've had a few goes choosing my own adventure and have had fun each time. I love the illustration style and would recommend to everyone.

Choose your own adventure combined with a graphic novel. Yes please!!! How awesome is this book, so awesome that I need a print copy stat! What a wonderful idea and the execution is excellent. As the reader you get your clues both in the text and in the illustrations. Plus it is put on like a game where you have to feed your magical creature or else he is asleep and not there to give you needed magical powers. Did I mention you can pick the character you play as, so that increases the number of story lines.I am completely in love with this book. Thank you Quirk Books for bringing back my fav type childhood books!!!!!!

My only previous experience with "choose you own adventure" style comics is Jason Shiga's Meanwhile, which worked fantastically due to all the different arrows you could easily follow through the book. I truly loved Hocus & Pocus; The Legend of Grimm's Woods for different reasons. I completely messed it up the first time I went through as I missed the numbers in the panels, but once I got the hang of it, I decided that the small-scale "D&D" format with character stat sheet was absolutely perfect! I will definitely be purchasing this title for my library and will keep an eye out for more titles like this.