Cat Takes Queen
In Which a Humble Cat of Astonishing Genius Recounts a Tale of Chess Mates and Checkmates
Will be published approx. on 13. October 2026
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-250-43366-4 (ISBN)
Description
A witty, chess-playing stray tries to elude a catnapper while helping two tournament-bound schoolkids navigate life's challenges in this clever debut.
Morphy, a witty stray cat with an attitude, steers clear of humans-except for Edgar, his human chess-playing friend. Morphy may be a stray, but he's at a loss when Edgar falls ill and leaves home. Only by teaming up with Edgar's headstrong granddaughter, and a young street-chess player, can Morphy help bring Edgar home, elude a catnapper, and create a found family.
In the process, diagrams of chess moves will inspire chess players at all levels, but readers don't have to know chess to be uplifted by this story about how humans (and stray cats) find their people and a love of the game.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Children/juvenile
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-250-43366-4 (9781250433664)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Ilona Bray and Stephen Soong are a husband-and-wife team who live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ilona Bray is a former immigration lawyer, and would rather play Scrabble than any other game-though she finds chess fascinating in its elusive brain-teasing. Stephen Soong, a self-described Chinese-American chess geek, taught himself the game. At Brown University, he was on a team of students that competed at the US Amateur Team Championships, where he managed to beat a computer. At one point his US Chess Federation rating placed him in the top 5 percent of all rated chess players nationwide. Cat Takes Queen is their middle grade fiction debut.