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Reviewed by:
  • Curiosity by Gary Blackwood
  • Elizabeth Bush
Blackwood, Gary. Curiosity. Dial, 2014. [320p]. ISBN 978-0-8037-3924-6 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7.

Twelve-year-old Rufus Goodspeed has one chance to spring his father from debtors’ prison—to parlay his local reputation as a chess prodigy in 1835 Philadelphia into a job with Johann Maelzel, owner of the Turk, a chess-playing automaton that is the crown jewel in his exhibition. In doing so, Rufus becomes privy to the machine’s operation and Maelzel’s secret: Rufus is simply the latest in a line of the Turk’s [End Page 443] operators, who sit inside and play endgames and full matches, and whose lives are threatened if they ever reveal the truth behind the machine’s success. Blackwood constructs a plot with appeal to several readerships: the gearheads who enjoy the mechanical workings of these robotic oddities, à la Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret (BCCB 4/07); those who shiver at the possibility of life force within the machine, à la Schlitz’s Splendors and Glooms (BCCB 10/12); those who gravitate toward plucky orphan stories; and of course, those who appreciate a solid historical fiction riff on a real-life invention, the Turk itself. Rufus’ self-effacing narration is thoroughly engaging; acknowledging that not all of his listeners will be equally intrigued with the game of chess, he handily brings the ignorant up to speed and then moves briskly along with the details of his precarious employment, and the bittersweet climax to his family drama. An afterword remarks on Maelzel and other featured historical characters.

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