about the book
Freshman Daniel Pratzer is a dork. After a couple of lonely first months at his new exclusive private academy, he yearns to make some friends. Though he has little playing experience, Daniel signs up for the school’s prestigious chess team. The two overachieving team captains, Eric (a fidgety bully) and Brad (a super hunky-hulky swim-champ chess master), quickly nickname Daniel “Patzer-face.” Besides being a play on his last name, patzer is a nasty chess term for a bad player. Dan’s not going to break into this cool-to-cruel crowd anytime soon!
So imagine Dan’s surprise when they invite him to join them and their highly successful brilliant chess playing dads at an exclusive parent-child tournament in New York City. Dan doesn’t even think his father plays chess, but it turns out that Morris, his meek accountant dad, was one of the nation’s most promising grandmasters when he was sixteen! To spend time with his son, he agrees to come out of retirement. This will give Dan a chance to show the team his real skills.
Once the tournament begins, it is obvious that the other team members expect Morris to win each match and help them take home the $10,000 first place prize. Dan is awed as his mild-manner father transforms into an intense cutthroat competitor. Slowly Daniel uncovers why his father quit playing chess and vowed never to play again. As Morris sweeps through each level of the competition, the stress makes him unravel, both emotionally and mentally. The smart thing to do is quit the tournament…but how can they walk away from the challenge when Morris’s next match is an old rival who knew Morris’s every stress-point and inner demon?
Dan is learning a lot this weekend: about his dad and about their relationship, about peer pressure and values, about chess and the addiction of winning, about secrets and mistakes, and about girls, especially one very special female chess player. Seems Daniel will be making some surprising and calculated moves all on his own!
about the author
Born in Vermont, David Klass grew up in Leonia, New Jersey. Since David was a very reluctant reader, his father read out loud to him every night, using his acting abilities to bring life to each character.
David was destined to be a writer. His mother, Shiela Soloman Klass, was an English professor who published 18 novels. His dad, Morton Klass, an anthropology professor, wrote and edited science fiction. His older sister Perri is a doctor who writes about women’s issues in addition to short stories, and his younger sister Judy is a playwright.
While in high school, David wrote a story that won a Seventeen magazine contest. He went on to study history at Yale and was lucky to have several excellent writing instructors. While teaching English in Japan, he wrote his first novel. He returned to study screenwriting at the University of Southern California. He has published fourteen young adult novels and produced more than 40 screenplays for Hollywood.
David lives in New York City with his wife Giselle and their two small children.
Sources:
Author interview : Teen Lit Rocks
Author biography : Scholastic
Author biography : Wikipedia
Author biography : The ALAN Review (Virginia Tech)
Also by David Klass:
Losers Take All. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux (BYR). 2015.
Second Impact. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux (BYR). 2013.
Stuck on Earth Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. 2010.
Timelock (The Caretaker Trilogy, Book 3). Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. 2009.
Whirlwind (The Caretaker Trilogy, Book 2). Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. 2008.
Firestorm (The Caretaker Trilogy, Book 1). Frances Foster Books. 2006.
Dark Angel. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. 2005.
Home of the Braves. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. 2002.
read more!
Crossing Lines by Paul Volponi
Formerly-fat kid, Adonis has become a star on the football team and is dating one of the cutest girls in school. He goes along with the bully jocks on the team, fearful of getting on their bad side—so when Alan, an openly gay transfer student, arrives at school wearing a dress and lipstick, Adonis is torn. He doesn’t want to, but he may not have any choice but to aid in the jocks’ bullying.
Losers Take All by David Klass
When his high school principal declares that every student must play a sport, Jack and his non-athletic friends decide to start a soccer team. They call their team the Losers, and they decide to lose on purpose to protest the school’s jock culture. They are not prepared, however, when their plan backfires.
Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp
During their run for a fifth-season-in-a-row undefeated record, star linebacker Hampton Green finds his knee injury from last season is still bugging him. The worst of his problems are off the field, though, as his mom seems to have a new boyfriend every week, he feels drawn to a quirky, nerdy girl, and his best friend is spiraling out of control.