Alex and the Wednesday Chess Club

by Janet S. Wong

Book Overview

Alex first learned to play chess when he was four years old. He loved it. He loved the pieces, the challenge, and the sweet taste that winning left in his mouth. He loved it until he played a chess game with moldy old Uncle Hooya...and lost. Then Alex decided to give up chess for good. Now in third grade Alex wants to give chess another try. He joins the chess club and discovers that chess is fun again. He plays his friends, he listens to the coach,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689858906
• ISBN13: 9780689858901
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 9.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

A Kid's Review

This book is about a boy who loved to play chess. My favorite part was when the knights acted like real horses, galloping across the board and jumping over other pieces. Helen Iorga, 2nd grader

More than a kid's book

The core of this story is formulaic (kid suffers setback, kid gives up, kid bounces back, kid finds success). But it was written by someone who obviously understands the world of scholastic chess, and chess is therefore more than a parable for the lessons of life: it is the central feature of the story. The humor and moral are subtle and understated; while they clearly went over the "kid reviewer's" head, it's easy to see why from the sense of humor he displayed in his review. Other readers should not be thrown off the scent by someone who didn't get it. Kids should be attracted by Alex, who finds something he likes to do, decides to stick with it, and perseveres to succeed even though he fails several times beforehand. But this is as much a book for adults as kids: a sly tribute to a mother who understands both the benefits and the attractive power of chess and who was wise enough to "put up with" junk food, missing chores, and an ego funk in order to get Alex hooked on the game. Smart woman!

One defeat should never lead you to give up

One of the most amazing facts about the human species is that child prodigies are found in only a few areas. I have heard it argued that they appear only in mathematics, music and chess. The most interesting part of this is that all three require the abstraction of patterns. This book is about a boy (Alex) who learned to play chess when he was four years old and loved to play until he was soundly defeated by an adult named Uncle Hooya. The defeat left a sour taste in his mouth, a literal statement, as he often used treats as chess pieces and ate every piece that he captured. Therefore, he vowed to never play chess again. Alex then went on to try many other things, but after eating some dirt playing football, his mind went back to chess and he joins the school chess club. At first, he repeatedly goes down to defeat against the other members of the club, but eventually he starts to win on occasion. He then is a contestant in a chess tournament, losing his first two games, before he starts winning. The high point is when he plays a relative of Uncle Hooya. By concentrating and thinking of food, he defeats his rival, avenging the defeat that turned him away from chess for so long. The book ends with a top ten list of tips for success in chess. Written for children aged 4-8, this is a parable about life with the points being made via chess. One defeat should never end your involvement in something you enjoy and the strategies for success listed by the coach of the chess club can be applied to any field of human endeavor. It is an excellent book of lessons about life and what you must do to succeed. Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.