Wolves of Londinium by Kate Cunningham & Sam Cunningham – The Strawberry Post
A review of a brilliant and fun children’s fiction book set in Roman London where you the reader decide what happens next in the story and your choices will affect whether you have a bad ending or good.
About Wolves of Londinium
Title: Wolves of Londinium (Choose a Timeline #1)
Author: Kate Cunningham
Illustrator: Sam Cuningham
Publisher: Reading Riddle
Genre: Older children/middle grade fiction, Activity – choose your own adventre
Book format reviewed: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: In the year 122
Emperor Hadrian is visiting Britannia and the Governor is determined to make it memorable. Your mother is an aurifix, a skilled goldsmith, and her statue of a gold wolf will be the centrepiece of the celebrations at the ampitheatre in Londinium. All you need to do is collect the emerals that have been shipped from Egypt in the for them to be added to the sculpture.
What could possibly go wrong? Tenty possible endings – but only one is successful. Will you find it and avoid being thrown into prison or eaten by a tiger?
*Free copy provided by Random Things Tours for review…
My review and thoughts Wolves of Londinium
Oh wow, this is such a fun and fantastic book set in Londinium, Roman times London. Tomorrow the Emperor Hadrian is visiting Londinium and will be presented with a golden statue of a wolf which your mother is making, but in order to finish the statue she needs to set green emeralds into it for the eyes and she’s tasked you to go and get the emeralds from the trader at the port. But things might not go so well if you don’t select the right timeline Do you head straight for the waiting ship and trader, or do you stop and admire the view from a bridge first? There are plenty of choices to make, but will your choice put you on the right timeline, or send you into despair?
I grew up loving a variety of choose your own adventure style books and this is such a good one where you must navigate your way through the story choosing the right path or else getting a bad ending. For anyone who’s never tried this style of book, you begin with chapter one which gives you a few short paragraphs of the story before then telling you to go to another chapter to continue reading. Rather than reading the chapters in numerical order you go to the chapter number mentioned at the end of the chapter you are reading, sometimes being presented with a choice and what you decide, how you wish the story to continue, affects what direction the story takes and what timeline you end up on.
There is only one correct ending and it took me quite a few times to get there but it’s a very good ending when you finally get there and there’s still a few paths I didn’t choose so I look forward to trying to read this a different way in future. There are some fun illustrations in black, white and grey on some of the pages showing you what is happening in the story, and I like how these look, as well as how good the story is at immersing you in Roman London. There’s a map at the start of the book and the whole book is printed in a dyslexia friendly font. Being a book with these short chapters that jump you around, it’s also a good shorter read for reluctant readers too. The only thing I think is missing is a glossary of some of the Roman words used within the story as I think it would be nice for kids to know what these are without having to go back into the story for an explanation.
I love the story and what happens, especially as you are the protagonist. The Londinium setting is so interesting and I can’t wait to see more books in this Choose Your Own Timeline series.
Buy Wolves of Londinium
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About the author Kate Cunningham
When she was young Kate promised she would never go out with a boy called Sean (too naughty), study history (too boring) or be a teacher (too hard) but she dreamt of writing books.
Luckily dreams can come true and promises are made to be broken.
She now writes books inspired by fascinating stories from history, visits schools using her ten years of teaching experience, and is married to historian Sean Cunningham.
After all life would be very boring if you knew how it was going to turn out.
Kate works with her eldest son, illustrator Sam Cunningham, who creates the wonderful hand-drawn pictures in all the Reading Riddle children’s books.
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About the illustrator Sam Cunningham
Visit illustrator’s website Visit illustrator on Instagram
-Thanks to Random Things Tours for a chance to be a part of this blog tour (apologies for the delay)! 🙂
Other choose your own adventure style children’s books
-Read review – Choose Your own Adventure: Journey Under the Sea by Andrew E. C. Gaska, E. L. Thomas, Dani Bolinho & PH Gomes
Other children’s books set in Roman times
-Read review – Game On: Glitched by Emily Snape (Game On! #2)
-Read review – Julius Zebra Quiz Book by Gary Northfield (Julis Zebra)
-Read review – Julius Zebra Joke Book Jamboree by Gary Northfield (Julius Zebra)
-Read review – Julius Zebra: Grapple with the Greeks! by Gary Northfield (Julius Zebra #4)
-Read review – Julius Zebra: Entangled with the Egyptians! by Gary Northfield (Julius Zebra #3)
-Read review – Julius Zebra: Bundle with the Britons! by Gary Northfield (Julius Zebra #2)
-Read review – Julius Zebra: Rumble with the Romans! by Gary Northfield (Julius Zebra #1)
What do you think of this book? Have you ever read any choose your own adventure style books? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
