If you thought the Choose Your Own Adventure books were magical, one Sri Lankan children’s book author might be up your alley.
Sybil Wettasinghe, the 90-year-old author of The Umbrella Thief , a classic children’s book in Sri Lanka, set a new Guinness World Record yesterday with the publication of her book Wonder Crystal . Wettasinghe’s book has the most alternate endings ever: 1,250.
As wild as that is, Wettasinghe did have a little help. Wonder Crystal was a collaborative project conceived last year , the Sri Lanka Mirror reports, “with the objective of encouraging children to use their imagination and explore their creativity and thus complete the story by contributing through their writings, drawings, and poetry.”
Some 20,000 children in Sri Lanka were invited to submit entries for the book.
Aaron Robertson has written for The New York Times , The Nation , Foreign Policy , and elsewhere. His translation of Igiaba Scego's novel Beyond Babylon (Two Lines Press, 2019) was shortlisted for the PEN Translation Prize and Best Translated Book Award.
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