Not an Easy Win

Expelled from largely white Andrew Jackson Middle School after being blamed for the fights that see him regularly beat up by bullies, a Black 12-year-old learns the game of chess in this heartfelt novel from Giles (Take Back the Block). When his now-incarcerated father left the family, Lawrence, his mother, and his eight-year-old sister moved from Charlotte to his religious grandmother’s country house in Larenville, N.C., where they live with his twin cousins. Despite attempts to stay under the radar, Lawrence is expelled for the rest of the year, and Granny makes it clear that “a man that don’t work don’t eat.” Listening to old-school music on his father’s left-behind iPod as a means to feel his dad’s presence, Lawrence looks for ways to spend time while completing the school year online. His luck starts to change when neighbor Mr. Dennis introduces him to an extracurriculars program at Carver Recreation Center, where he encounters Black peers, including chess queen Twyla, who “filled up the whole room with her sureness.” Fans of Akeelah and the Bee and Brooklyn Castle will cherish this well-characterized, compassionately told story that touches on financial precarity, intergenerational community, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Ages 10–up. Agent: Elizabeth Bewley, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Feb.)