Great children's book, with well drawn characters about bereavement, family relationships, especially inter-generational ones, and ADHD. It centres around the relationship between 11 year old Felix and his Grandfather, whom at the start he doesn't really know very well. Felix has recently lost his Grandmother, someone he was very close to. As he spends more time with his Grandfather, they both come to a better understanding of each-other, especially when the latter undertakes to teach Felix chess, a way to try and help him learn to overcome some of the difficulties he faces through having ADHD. ( )

Enjoyable book.
Felix shows us how ADHD affects his life, he starts playing chess
with his Grandpa eventually winning tournaments and concentrating
more on his school work.
One thing is, I wish they revealed more of the actual chess games rather than skipping to whether he won or lost.

Overall, this book made me want to play chess.

Finished - 2/01/2020 ( )

Lovely book by the author of "The Bubble Boy". Felix is coping with the death of his grandmother ( who lived across the road and who he saw every day) and the challenges that ADHD presents in his school life. the book opens with him sitting in the Isolation Room ( i.e detention/time out room) staring at a blank wall yet again, for something he said or did in class. To make matters worse, his grandfather picks him up from high school every day in an enormous PINK car and his parents are working very long hours to make ends meet after his father's business went broke.
The latter means that Felix spends every afternoon with his grandfather and, when he is sent to the isolation Room at school, he isn't allowed to leave his grandfathers to go and muck around with his mate Jake.
Jake thinks that Felix's grandfather has a secret because he is grumpy with everyone, never opens his curtains or answers the phone, and rips his letters and bills into tiny pieces so no-one can no his personal details. His fears seem justified when Felix stumbles across a box of old German identity papers from when the Berlin War was built - was his grandfather a spy or worse?

The grandfather sets out on a "Karate Kid" type mission to teach Felix how to play chess. Rather than using the "wax on, wax off" technique - he gets Felix to mow the lawn into a chessboard while teaching him to memorize each squares' identity - e,g.b4, d4, c6 etc. With other chores like this, he teaches Felix to be patient, be meticulous and calm the thoughts in his head. Eventually Felix challenges his grandfather to do scuba diving as a last resort to get out of learning chess. (Chess is only for nerds). The grandfather accepts the challenge and so Felix must learn to play.

Of course, in this story, Felix gets quite good at chess and beats the school champion putting him in the run for State championships, etc. Its not all smooth sailing though, as his Grandfather ends up in hospital and other things happen.

I liked how Felix comes to slow realizations about his grandfather missing his grandmother and having a hard time growing up. I also liked how the resentment Felix feels towards his parents is eventually tempered with a maturing understanding of their need to work long hours not relating to them loving Felix any less. Nice coming-of-age story. ( )