The Clockwork Queen

It's about Sophie playing chess

The best character was the Ivan Peshka also known as the best chess player in Russia!

A good book to read

The book is about the clockwork queen and Sophie. Clockwork queen is a wooden clockwork who plays chess. In the story Sophie plays against the clockwork queen but loses. She lost because Olga, the daughter of Mr Kon is controlling the clockwork queen inside a secret compartment. They play against the empress and then Sophie, who was in the secret compartment was controlling the clockwork by pulling the levers, and won.

Yes it's worth recommending.

This was a very good book, I enjoyed it beachside it was a nice easy read and was full of adventure.I found it inspiring how the main character kept on going even though things were tough.I would recommend this book, especially to chess players.

I loved it and it was very exciting. All of the people in it were my favourite characters. I would recommend that you read it if you like chess or robots.

It was interesting because of the big secret of the clockwork Queen.

I rated this book 5 stars because it is very exciting. my favourite character was the clockwork queen, who is an android that plays chess. I would recommend it to people who like playing chess. i would also recommend it if you want to read medium-length books, not long books, for the challenge.

Donated to me by Barrington Stoke. I would very much recommend it to primary school and beyond. It is a good adventure story with a female character lead and a very bad Empress of Russia!

Sophie is 10 when her father is called by the Empress Catherine the Great to teach her son how to play chess. She goes to the station with her mother to see him off. They see many friends who call to them but there is no time for a game. Her father, Ivan Peshka, is a master chess player. He has taught her from the age of 5, but she hasn't beaten him yet. Her leaves her his chess set and a copy of his book, Masters of Chess.
Sophie practises daily with their friends in the park, she reads her book nightly. Her fathers letters from St Petersburg stop and so does the money. The last package that comes is from the office of the Empress saying he has been jailed for failing to teach her son. Slowly the income from his book stops as well, Sophie plays for money, her mother sews and they sell everything but teh chess set and book. Then Sophie's mum becomes ill and dies. Her fathers friends help her for a while. Eventually she thinks she has no choice but to sell the chess set.
Then along comes a girl, Olga Kon and her father and his invention, The Clockwork Queen. The Clockwork Queen plays chess. Sophie loses to it but also begins an adventure that takes her all the way to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.
We have lots of children that love Barrington Stoke because they are short, not just for dyslexics. This is a great adventure story and I'm sure they'll love it.

I read this from start to finish in one go. I really liked the character of Sophie and finding out more about her relationship with her father. The character of the Clockwork Queen was fascinating and it was interesting to find out more about the inspiration behind this.
I would absolutely recommend this to anyone with a sense of adventure -if they also enjoy a game of chess, that would be an added bonus.