Chess Nuts

by Julia Lawrinson

A lighthearted novel for children about the game of chess.

Jackson is sporty and popular.

Anna doesn't like the sporty, popular people.

So when Jackson joins the chess squad, Anna does not initially welcome him. But Anna is about to learn some things about friendship, chess and physical fitness.



"First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2010"--P. opp. t.p.

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Julia Lawrinson is an Australian writer of children's and young adult fiction. Her debut novel Obsession (Fremantle Press, 2001) won the Western Australian Premier's Prize for Young Adult Writing: since then her work has been shortlisted for numerous awards. Her latest book for young adults is Before You Forget (PenguinRandomHouse 2017). Her latest novel for children is Mel and Shell (Fremantle Press 2021), and in 2023 she published her first picture book, City of Light (ill. Heather Potter and Mark Jackson) with Wild Dog Books. Her memoir, How To Avoid A Happy Life, is out with Fremantle Press.

Reviews

[Robyn Mundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Juvenile fiction. I loved this story. A sort of Pride & Prejudice with friendship and reconciliation looking impossible between Anna, as determined to be the school's best chess player as she is to be its least sporty pupil, and fellow student Jackson, a champion athlete.

[Miss Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as an ebook which was a first. It's a typical teen storyline where two characters are unwillingly, or rather, begrudgingly thrown together to learn the skill/craft the other possesses only to realise their own potential in that other field. Jackson is a sports athlete (runner and swimmer) and Anna is a chess player. I like how several characters had their own character arc as well as the wise quotes from chess masters which naturally speak to the mindset of the characters at the time. For example, "You learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win." In this way it reminds me of Kwame Alexander's basketball tips in 'The Crossover'. The storyline reminds me of 'This Way Up' by Lindsay Wood about orienteering. It'd be a nice tie in to the film 'The Dark Horse'. My favourite line was: "People play better when what they're doing matters."

[Melina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little while ago I wrote about Julia Lawrinson’s Losing It, which I quite disliked. I’m pleased to say, that I enjoyed Chess Nuts, a middle grades fiction by Lawrinson, about 100 times more than Losing It!

Chess Nuts is told through the perspectives of two children in their final year of primary school. Jackson is the sporty and popular kid, Anna is the wordy, chess playing outcast. When Jackson turns up at chess club, no one expects him to stick around, and Anna definitely doesn’t want him there. However, with the help of each other they discover how to become more accepting of each other and others around them.

I really enjoyed the two main characters. Jackson is fairly typical of the ‘sporty kid who enjoys music/dance/chess’ character that you see a lot of in children’s books – and occasionally in real life. The story with his father definitely adds another dimension to him, as does Anna’s struggles with the relationship she has with her brilliant, but not necessarily empathetic mother. Anna is defiantly smart – when she’s forced to run the cross country, she deliberately walks it. She throws out witty, wordy insults, but she’s really not accepting of anyone she thinks may not be as smart as she is. These two characters together are really interesting, though I’m very glad Lawrinson kept away from any kind of romantic plot.

There were some parts that bugged me. A lot of the supporting characters are very one dimensional, like in Losing It. This particularly annoyed me in the case of Josh, who is stereotypically a person with Austistic Spectrum Disorder – all the time. We’re never shown the shades of up and down that most people with ASD have. There’s also the use of the word ‘retard’ as an insult. While people are told off for using it, I still detest seeing it used in that way, without addressing why it’s so grating. There are plenty of other insults that bullies use, or a simple comment from a teacher about why it shouldn’t be used would have been better, rather than keeping it in circulation as an insult.

Although those things did bug me, this was definitely a book with the kind of empathy and heart that was missing from Losing It. I know a lot of reviewers raved about Losing It, I much prefer Chess Nuts for its exploration of what it means to be smart, belong to certain ‘groups’ at school, and how the game of chess can be enjoyed by everyone.


This review originally appeared at Adventures of a Subversive Reader

[SL!NKY · Rating 5 out of 5]

really good book, short and sweet but still very amusing, i just wanted to keep on reading and when i got to the end i didnt want it to finish