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A review by niyyahwriting
May the Best Player Win by Kyla Zhao
4.0
This was a delightful, quick read about a girl trying to manage keeping up her love for chess as her skill improves, amidst challenges with friends and gender bias. I thought the book was fresh and cute and had a great middle grade voice and could have been a three star review... buuuuut...
Zhao did a great job of expressing gender biases in a field like chess, as well as the sneaky ways misogyny shows up. What I like is that our girl called these out, which is so hard, but it used language that young readers can use to respectfully highlight how language and actions is harmful to both girls and boys.
Fun read, almost made me want to give chess another try.
(Almost).
Congrats to this debut, look forward to the next by Zhao.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC, for which I am giving my honest review and opinion of the novel.
Zhao did a great job of expressing gender biases in a field like chess, as well as the sneaky ways misogyny shows up. What I like is that our girl called these out, which is so hard, but it used language that young readers can use to respectfully highlight how language and actions is harmful to both girls and boys.
Fun read, almost made me want to give chess another try.
(Almost).
Congrats to this debut, look forward to the next by Zhao.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC, for which I am giving my honest review and opinion of the novel.