Grandmaster by David Klass - ADVISABLE

Klass, David Grandmaster, pg. 226 Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2014 Language: (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content-PG; Violence: G;

The book begins with this quote:

“A mind saturated with one idea to the exclusion of all others is necessarily predisposed to mania, and if a man allows himself to regard Chess as the one fact of existence, thereby starving his mind, which, like the body, requires a variety of food, then the texture of the strongest brain must become weakened, and the reason sooner or later be overthrown.”  -William Norwood Potter The City of London Chess Magazine, 1876.

 This book is about a boy name Daniel Pratzer who joins the chess club at his school.  He is a novice at best.  The other members of the team run with the popular crowd and tend to give him a hard time.  They ask him what plan he had that weekend and Daniel finds himself surprised.  They want him to come to a father son tournament.  He’s confused by the invitation because he doesn’t think his Dad even knows how to play the game.  Come to find out his father in his younger years was a Grandmaster at Chess.  Through an interesting and enlightening conversation with his father they decide to go.  The father and his son learn how to pull together as a team.  

I learned all kinds of things about chess and the complexity of the game.  I also learned to appreciate the intensity and the power that chess can have on your emotional health.  It was easy to read and made you want to turn the next page.  It’s a great book for a chess lover.

MS, HS - ADVISABLE Emilee-Library Teacher