The Boy in the Book

The Boy in the Book is an interactive web adaption of the live show Choose Your Own Documentary, created by writer Nathan Penlington and film-makers Fernando Gutierrez De Jesus, Sam Smaïl and Nick Watson. It blends illustration, documentary film, and text in the format of an online chat feed to weave a narrative that follows Nathan’s real-life pursuit of Terence Prendergast, the previous owner of a collection of Choose Your Own Adventure Books whose diary Nathan finds between their pages. In the same vein as Choose Your Own Adventure genre, there are six different endings, all achievable via selecting different options within the narrative. 

The work itself focuses on the lasting effects of childhood experiences, with Penlington looking back at his own childhood alongside the search. 

The Boy in the Book was shortlisted for the 2020 New Media Writing Prize and created in association with digital design studio Joi Polloi.