G. Neri always does an amazing job putting an authentic voice of the streets to paper. Marcus fronts as a tough guy and bully in the wake of his sister's death and his father's leaving the family, but there's a spark of humanity in there waiting to be re-lit, in this case by the Chess Man who shows Marcus how chess strategies can be applied to one's life for the better. Relevant and real. ( )

Eleven-year-old Marcus is an extremely troubled youth. His sister, with whom he was close, died the year before of a heart ailment. His father left. Marcus is big and gets teased and bullied about it – especially by a particularly mean kid named Latrell. He copes with his problems by either getting in fights or withdrawing from everyone.

After yet another fight in school, he is sent to the library to cool off. There he encounters “CM” or “Chess Master.” CM tries to teach Marcus chess, and show him the value in thinking ahead. He explains to Marcus: "See, you think you’re a king, but you’re just a pawn. You’re not playing to your strengths. You got brains somewhere in that head a yours. You just gotta use ‘em.”

Marcus starts playing chess with CM every day after school, and starts to improve:

"Over the next month CM an’ me play every day after school. We even talk ‘bout stuff that’s botherin’ me, like Latrell an’ my sister, an’ Daddy not bein’ ‘round no more. He show me that all them chess pieces is like a family. That when one fall, the others carry on. They have to. But when one win, the whole family win.”

Marcus actually gets good enough to corral Latrell and challenge him to play. Pretty soon Latrell wants to learn also. CM tells Marcus he is starting a group of “chess warriors,” based on support and friendly competition rather than cruelty and violence. Marcus thinks he can do this, and even be good at it. CM tells him “Yeah, I think you’re figurin’ out your endgame.”

Evaluation: I love G. Neri. He has an outstanding ability to capture the anger and hurt and yearning and voice of poverty and broken families and gangs. He always makes me cry. A shout out too for Jesse Joshua Watson, whose illustrations are terrific. ( )

Chess Rumble is an illustrated fiction book written by G. Neri and illustrated by Jesse Watson. It involves the daily struggles of an overweight adolescent who juggles with the death of his sister and a single parent home. It is set in the suburbs of what seems like a New York-style town. The main character, Marcus, has a difficult time controlling his angry. He chooses violence and as a result, is one step away from being kicked out of school. One day he meets a guy named CM, who introduces him to the game of chess. Marcus does not realize this will change his look on life for the the best.

I loved this book. It is hard to find books for adolescents that actually have a very positive ending. Many students come from a single parent home and if they read this, they will have direct contact with ways top deal with their situation. A few issues discussed in the book would be bullying, stress, and family life. I agree with all of these issues because they are all very prominent in the world today. This book can be well mistaken for a book written by Walter Dean Myers. It deals with the same adolescent issues the Myers would write about. Reading this book has confirmed my beliefs that out of every negative situation, something positive can can come out of it.

Teaching Ideas
*Helping students find positive alternatives for difficult situations
*The importance of ending bullying
*The importance of discussing relevant adolescent problems within your classroom to keep in touch with your students.

This is a very well-written book. It shows adolescents a positive outcome to a negative situations. When the odds are stacked against a person, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. G. Aneurism shows this a more in this book. Every teacher or parent should read this in the classroom of home. ( )

Personal response:
This would be a positive book for many young men to read, especially for the middle school age group. It demonstrates both the potential consequences of anger expression through physical violence, and the positive alternatives along with the benefits of those. I enjoyed the use of chess terms to break the book into chapters / acts: opening move, middle game, endgame.

Middle school / junior high

Curricular or Programming Connections:

This would be a good choice for any health class or unit discussing making positive choices. This may also be a good inspiration for interest in chess for youth of many ages. ( )

Great book, lot's of fighting and there was a good plot. ( )