“Jack and the mystery of chess”, a children’s book to take care of heritage

Sergio Jimenez Foronda

Logroño, (EFE).- The children’s novel “Jota y el misterio del chess” transmits to children “the importance of respecting, caring for and valuing the cultural heritage” of Spain and, specifically, of La Rioja, through a fictional story that spreads what transhumance was like and what a dolmen is.

This has been stated to EFE by its author, the Riojan teacher Jorge de Leonardo, on the occasion of the recent publication of this his second novel, which also constitutes the continuation of a trilogy that began with “Jota and the mystery of the bottles.”

De Leonardo (Logroño, 1976) has explained that “Jack and the mystery of chess”, illustrated by Álex Márquez, seeks to convey to the youngest that heritage must be taken care of and teaches them that, if they visit a town, “they know how to enjoy from the doorway of a church and appreciate a dolmen or any type of monument”.

He has indicated that this second part is located a few months after the first, during Easter Week, during which “Jota, who is a fan of chess, is invited to the regional championship that is going to be held in the town and, when when he arrives, his surprise is that all the material has disappeared: the boards and the pieces”.

After this robbery, he continued, “there are only two days left for the championship to start, and Jota, with his friends from the first part, have to try, in those two days, to locate the thief and all the material that has been stolen ”.

Evolution of the narrative

In this book “there is an evolution in the very way of writing because you have more experience, the writing process costs you less and you know how to handle language and phrases better, in that sense, there is an evolution compared to the first one, but, More than anything, it is an evolution dictated by experience”, he has expressed.

This professor has pointed out that, “as in the first, when a publisher wants to publish a children’s novel, they look for the plot to be interesting, involving and to captivate the child, that is very important, because if they start reading a book and He doesn’t like it, he’s very sincere, he’s going to leave it to the third page”.

“Apart from that, what children’s publishers ask of you is that the book transmit a series of values, often in line with the family and the school. So, in this second volume, as in the first, values ​​such as friendship, camaraderie and teamwork are worked on”, she specified.

Regarding his future projects, he has indicated that, in the short term, he does not plan to write what will be the third and final part of the Jota trilogy, but rather wants to launch another children’s-youth novel, but “a little more mature and that already is in the publishing house”, and has begun to write “an adult novel that is a historical-police thriller”.

He has specified that this children’s-youth mystery book will be located in “Spain at the beginning of the Transition, in a town that could be any of those that were and are in La Rioja and Castilla y León.” EFE