BABY PLAYS CHESS

Feeding? Check. Diaper change? Check. Morning nap? Check. Chess? CHECKMATE!

Combining cutesy illustrations—the knights look like busts of characters from the 1980s My Little Pony TV show—with complex language and die-cut directions, this board book is one that babies and toddlers will love to chew on, though not one likely to leave them prepared for a chess game. The information is solid, but it’s clearly written for an older audience—one that has started thinking abstractly: “Chess is a game with six types of pieces: pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, a queen, and a king. Each piece moves differently. Players take turns moving their pieces to try to checkmate, or trap, their opponent’s king.” That’s a lot of multisyllabic words for one page! The book is edifying, but the format and the title indicate that it’s for a much younger audience. Older readers—ones genuinely interested in learning chess—may balk at the title, the format, and the finger-tracing activities created by die cuts of the paths of the different pieces. Caregivers, let’s focus on games like peekaboo and leave chess alone until a few years after potty training.

Check…out a different book for your baby, mate.