Kaiju Gaga
Choose Your Own Adventure Jr.
A boy plays a parental role for a baby kaiju in E. C. Myers’s adventure-minded chapter book Kaiju Gaga.
On a trip to the Museum of Media, a boy drifts away from his class and visits an exhibit called Monster Movie Mania. There he finds an area dedicated to kaiju, the monsters of Japanese cinema, and a giant egg identified as a prop from his favorite movie. When he touches the egg, it cracks open, revealing Gaga, a baby Gargara, within. When a blue-haired security guard gets involved, the boy must decide whether to trust her, in addition to determining how to care for a fast-growing, rambunctious baby kaiju.
This Choose Your Own Adventure book for young readers includes a variety of paths to different endings, some in which the boy is successful and some in which he is less so. Responsible decision-making plays a role: the choice to watch a movie be filmed, instead of drawing attention to a theft, leads to a swift, somewhat disappointing result. Restarting and choosing a different path each time is encouraged, and there are plenty of variables to alter the story, including the mysterious security guard, adult kaiju, massive alien visitors, and parents.
Referring to the boy as “you” instead of using a proper name adds to the immersive nature of the book. Humor, like a monster movie called “Big Man On Campus,” also contributes to the book’s high entertainment value. Keeping with the light, breezy tone, the illustrations are colorful, action-packed, and often amusing, as with a hilarious scene at a salad bar, wherein lettuce and other ingredients fly everywhere during a Gaga feeding frenzy.
Kaiju Gaga is a fun chapter book with multiple pathways in which a boy learns to become the caretaker of a baby monster.
Reviewed by
Peter Dabbene
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
