The Clockwork Queen - Peter Bunzl

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Author: Peter Bunzl

Illustrator: Lia Visirin
Genre: Middle Grade Fiction.
Rating: 4.5 stars.

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’.

Story:
Sophie Peshka loves chess and has learnt the game in detail from her grandmaster father, Ivan. But now, Ivan is imprisoned in the dungeons of Queen Catherine for a very silly reason. With her mother dead, Sophie is left to survive using her chess skills. 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. Will Sophie succeed?
The story is told in the first person narrative pov of Sophie, who goes from ages 10 to 12 during the narrative.


I simply couldn’t keep the book aside. Of course, its being a quick read helped tremendously – it’s hardly 115 pages long.

The book has so much going for it. The details of chess are outstanding, and understandable even to those who don’t know the game. The bond between father and daughter is beautiful. The Clockwork Queen is amazing and will blow away the minds of children who don’t know anything about automata. (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 B&W illustrations are charming and work appropriately for the story.

The author’s note at the end reveals the factual basis for this fictional story. I found this very informative and it serves as a wonderful add-on to the book.

As 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 official target age range for this book is 8-12 years.

I loved this book from start to end and I hope every little reader too will cherish the experience as much as I did.

Trigger Warning: parental death.

My thanks to Barrington Stoke and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Clockwork Queen”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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