I found this very informative and it serves as a wonderful add-on to the book.Īs with every Barrington Stoke book, the story is of a higher level but the writing is on a simpler scale of understanding to suit a lower reading age. The author’s note at the end reveals the factual basis for this fictional story. The B&W illustrations are charming and work appropriately for the story. ( I would have been mind-blown too, had I not recently read another fictional novel on the same topic.) The descriptions of the environment of those days is vivid. The Clockwork Queen is amazing and will blow away the minds of children who don’t know anything about automata. The bond between father and daughter is beautiful. The details of chess are outstanding, and understandable even to those who don’t know the game. Of course, its being a quick read helped tremendously – it’s hardly 115 pages long. The story is told in the first person narrative pov of Sophie, who goes from ages 10 to 12 during the narrative. When an old friend re-enters her life with a chess-playing automaton named ‘The Clockwork Queen’, Sophie’s life changes and she sees a glimmer of hope to rescue her father. With her mother dead, Sophie is left to survive using her chess skills. But now, Ivan is imprisoned in the dungeons of Queen Catherine for a very silly reason. Sophie Peshka loves chess and has learnt the game in detail from her grandmaster father, Ivan. In a Nutshell: A really interesting story about how a young girl saves her father from the Russian prison with the help of chess and a ‘clockwork queen’.

Books by peter bunzl