All the Ways to Go

English language

Published 2024 by Sourcebooks, Incorporated.

ISBN:: 978-1-7282-7250-4

(1 review)

Milo Bloom, chess prodigy, has a secret: he doesn't want to play chess anymore. If only he had the courage to tell someone. Instead, he blows a major chess tournament on purpose. If no one knows he wants to quit, no one can be disappointed in him.

The problem is, winning that tournament was a ticket to chess camp, and the loss means his summer plans are shot. Enter Roxie, a girl he's never met, who shows up at his door uninvited to tell him all about how he and his mom will be spending the whole summer with her and her mom in the "cat room" in their New Jersey home…what?

Surprise! Before Milo knows what's hit him, he's living at Roxie's house, where creepy cats rule, meat products are banned, and Roxie, who doesn't seem to understand the concept of personal space, won't give him a second alone. …

Milo Bloom, chess prodigy, has a secret: he doesn't want to play chess anymore. If only he had the courage to tell someone. Instead, he blows a major chess tournament on purpose. If no one knows he wants to quit, no one can be disappointed in him.

The problem is, winning that tournament was a ticket to chess camp, and the loss means his summer plans are shot. Enter Roxie, a girl he's never met, who shows up at his door uninvited to tell him all about how he and his mom will be spending the whole summer with her and her mom in the "cat room" in their New Jersey home…what?

Surprise! Before Milo knows what's hit him, he's living at Roxie's house, where creepy cats rule, meat products are banned, and Roxie, who doesn't seem to understand the concept of personal space, won't give him a second alone.

But when Milo and Roxie stumble across two people playing a fascinating game they've never seen before, they become determined to learn the ancient game of Go. Between late-night library adventures and creating a Go club at their summer camp, Milo and Roxie form an unexpected friendship, realizing they have a lot more to learn from each other than just the game of Go. That is, if Milo can face his fears and tell his mom how he really feels about chess so he can stop living a lie.

1 edition

Scott reviewed All the Ways to Go by Jessie Janowitz

Character complexity, over game complexity

4 stars

This was a good book. Very much written for kids. But still smart, and well made. If you can read it as your kid self, you can get much out of it. Or just learn where kids are now.

The characters are well done. Even some of the more ancillary ones. It does a good job of presenting annoying characters. Then humanizing them. It doesnt do this by striping away the annoying features, but reminding us they are a person behind the annoying.

I think this does a pretty good job of having #GoGame in a story. It doesnt bog the reader down in on and on lessons of how the game works. Even the possibly best player in it tryies to avoid teaching. But the book does give tid bits of the game one might find interesting. As many of the characters find something they like in it.

It …

This was a good book. Very much written for kids. But still smart, and well made. If you can read it as your kid self, you can get much out of it. Or just learn where kids are now.

The characters are well done. Even some of the more ancillary ones. It does a good job of presenting annoying characters. Then humanizing them. It doesnt do this by striping away the annoying features, but reminding us they are a person behind the annoying.

I think this does a pretty good job of having #GoGame in a story. It doesnt bog the reader down in on and on lessons of how the game works. Even the possibly best player in it tryies to avoid teaching. But the book does give tid bits of the game one might find interesting. As many of the characters find something they like in it.

It also makes Milo's journey in Go feel organic. It didnt feel like he plays the game because that is the premise of the book. Just like Hikaru No Go, this book is about the characters more than it is about the game and all its complexity. It is about the character's complexity. The game is a tool to finding it. And not the only one.

It had a good narrative flow. I enjoyed it.