The Kings Are Already Here [Hardcover]

Garret Freymann-Weyr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 2003

Phebe Knight is training to become a ballerina. At fifteen, she has never once questioned that this is the life she wants. But now, one year away from joining the Company, her mind begins to wander. She decides to spend the summer with her father, who lives in Switzerland, in the hope that a change of scene will bring her focus back to the barre.
Nikolai Kotalev is a sixteen-year-old chess champion who has been befriended by Phebe’s father. Nikolai is looking for the chess teacher he needs: the legendary Stas Vlajnik. Nikolai’s attention never wanders. He plays beautiful chess and wants to learn from Stas how to become a grandmaster capable of both grace and speed.
Phebe, who knows what it means to follow one’s obsessions, organizes a search to help Nikolai find the elusive Stas. They travel across Europe with Phebe’s father and his girlfriend, hunting for Stas in all the places where chess’s elegant patterns live. Phebe and Nikolai study each other’s obsessions to find the lives they want.
The Kings Are Already Here explores the limits of what one is willing to pay for perfection and beauty.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up-When Phebe, 15, begins to question her single-minded pursuit of becoming a ballerina, she decides to visit her father in Switzerland. Instead of being a trip to refocus her energy on dance, it evolves into a journey to define herself and her goals. In Geneva, she meets Nikolai Kotalev, an equally dedicated and determined teen whose passion is chess. Her father and his girlfriend have taken the young man under their protective wing and are encouraging his desire to be grandmaster. However, in Nikolai's mind, the only way for him to improve is to be taught by the legendary grandmaster, Stas Vlajnik. Thus the four begin a trek across Europe to various exhibitions and tournaments to find the elusive Vlajnik. This is a beautifully written book about two young people who, until now, have never questioned their chosen careers. More than just a physical journey, the story also follows the spiritual odyssey that both characters undertake. It allows Phebe to grow and change, and it cements Nikolai's devotion to chess. The book also emphasizes the price one must pay for such obsessions. An entertaining read for all young adults, but especially for those seeking answers to life's complex questions.
Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-10. In My Heartbeat, this year's Books for Youth Top of the List winner, Freymann-Weyr focused on the intensity of relationships. Intense emotions are at work here, too, but they are not directed at people. Phebe has devoted her life to ballet, and Nikolai to chess. They meet when Phebe, curious to see if she can let anything else into her life, goes to Geneva to spend the summer with her father, Clarence, who heads an international refugee agency. Clarence has taken in 16-year-old Nikolai, deserted by his bullying father after Nikolai chose another coach--who then left Nikolai in the lurch. The story, long and convoluted as it follows Phebe, Nikolai, and Clarence and his lady friend in search of the elusive coach, is only a framework for the psychological battle that rages in Phebe and Nikolai as they engage their obsessions. Freymann-Weyr's writing can be as elegant as a beautifully played chess game or a perfect pas de deux, and Phebe and Nikolai's alternating monologues are sophisticated riffs showing flashes of both the characters' brilliance and the author's capabilities. Yet, the characters essentially live inside their own heads, with emotions and needs that won't always resonate with young teens. Readers who are willing to stick with the story, however, will find something of substance and, like Phebe and Nikolai, perhaps discover options for their own lives unfolding before them. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (April 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618263632
• ISBN-13: 978-0618263639
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,673,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Welcome to my Amazon page. I think I'm supposed to be formal here and speak about myself in the third person, but I'd rather just say hello. I'm very excited that I wrote the story for a beautiful picture book called French Ducks in Venice (play the video that the brilliant Erin McGuire made and that the equally brilliant Jeff Freymann-Weyr did the music for).

Normally I write novels for both adults and young adults (a fancy phrase for people who are 12-18, although I have lots of readers who are younger and older than that). In addition to French Duck in Venice, I am the author of My Heartbeat, a Printz Honor book, which is being reissued by Houghton Mifflin in June, 2012. I also wrote Stay with Me, The Kings Are all Here, and When I Was Older. For a long time, I lived in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. and then in a small town in North Carolina.

Now I am living in a lot of different places at once, which can be confusing. Fortunately, my dog, Henry (see photo), comes everywhere with me.

I grew up in New York City and miss it everyday. I have an MFA from NYU and I teach writing when I am not writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant and Sophisticated, April 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Kings Are Already Here (Hardcover)

I adored this book. Both the characters and the places they go to are beautifully and intricately described. I loved being taken from the dance studio in New York to Switzerland and then all over on a European odyssey to find the chess Grandmaster. I knew almost nothing about chess or ballet before I read Kings and I learned so much. I could feel the tension at the barre and the chess table even though I am neither a dancer nor a chess player. The relationship between Phebe and Kolya is so complicated and fragile. I really wanted there to be romance between the two of them, but somehow it's all the more interesting that there isn't. The only thing I am sincerely hoping for is that the author will write a sequel. I am too in love with the characters not to know what happens next. Both young and old will find this a wonderful story. I highly recommend it for anyone. As a p.s., I think this would make a gorgeous movie...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars thought provoking, May 3, 2003

By 

J. Segall "theresa" (New York United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Kings Are Already Here (Hardcover)

I've always been a sucker for books about gifted teens, but usually they are gifted in music. I found the combination and comparison of chess and ballet fascinating. The author doesn't fall for any of the easy traps like trying to make a love story here - though it is not that her teens are uninterested in sex or that they don't sense the possiblity of each other. She shows that becoming the best at anything involves a price and only we can decide if that price is worth it. Sometimes the alternating first person narrative, was a little hard to follow, but ultimately this was a satisfying book

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chess boy meets ballet girl in a short but brilliant book, March 17, 2004

By 

Jane Cronkhite "librarian extraordinaire" (Silicon Valley) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Kings Are Already Here (Hardcover)

This book is unlike any YA novel I have read. It is incredibly well-written, very literary, and still accessible to a wide variety of readers because the main characters are a boy and a girl, and because it's so short.
Phebe Knight is training to be a ballerina. Normally she's very dedicated, but lately she has trouble concentrating. Her teachers and mother decide a change of scenery may help, and they send her to Geneva, Switzerland to stay with her father for three months. Phebe's father is a diplomat, and this is how Phebe meets Nikolai.

Nikolai is a fifteen year old chess genius who has recently become estranged from his father who pushed him to extremes to be able to win and make money. Nikolai left his father to pursue his freedom and to study chess with the legendary, elusive, unstable Stas Vlajnik. Phebe is unsuccessful in her desire to focus on ballet, but she becomes, possibly for the first time, genuinely caring towards others. She finally begins to accept things about her father, and spends all her time with Nikolai, studying chess, how he thinks, and trying to help him find Vlajnik.

The second half of the book is spent all over Europe as they travel from chess tournaments searching for Vlajnik. The developments in the characters are nuanced and beautifully and truthfully written. When I finished this book I wanted to read everything by the author, and read up more on chess.