The Checker Players

Can a somewhat obsessive carpenter bear and a free-spirited tinker alligator actually play a third game of checkers despite their entirely complementary differences? QUOTE: In all of our years of teaching, we've found The Checker Players to be the perfect book for children of all ages. Alan Venable has created two comical characters, who, while competing in a simple game of checkers, find their very friendship at stake. How the carpenter and tinker resolve their differences provides a springboard for endless discussions about the value of respect and compromise. -- Ruth Rath and Mary Fessenden