Steve Sheinkin & Thien Pham are coming to your school!
Steve Sheinkin is the acclaimed author of fast-paced, cinematic nonfiction histories, including Diamond Fever!, Fallout, Undefeated, Born to Fly, The Port Chicago 50, and Bomb. He is also the co-author, with Ruta Sepetys, of the New York Times bestselling middle grade novel, The Bletchley Riddle. His accolades include a Newbery Honor, three Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, a Sibert Medal and Honor, and three National Book Award finalist honors. He lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, with his wife and two children.
Thien Pham is a graphic novelist and educator based in Oakland, CA. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Sumo and the illustrator for the middle-grade graphic novel Level Up, written by Gene Luen Yang. His graphic novel, Family Style, a memoir about his family's immigration to America told through the lens of food, has been on numerous best-of lists including the Washington Post’s “Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2023” and Publishers Weekly's “20 Books We Love.” Family Style was a finalist for the ALA YALSA Excellence in Non-Fiction and won an Eisner award for Best Memoir Graphic Novel. Currently, Pham is working on his next graphic novel, teaching, and eating. A lot. Follow Thien on Instagram.
Mind vs. Machine: The Chess Match That Changed the World
A high-stakes middle grade nonfiction graphic novel about the legendary chess match between World Champion Garry Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue computer, co-authored by Steve Sheinkin and Chess Grandmaster Maurice Ashley and illustrated by Thien Pham.
The hopes of humanity rest on the shoulders of one chess player.
It’s May, 1997, in Manhattan, New York. World champion Garry Kasparov is about to begin a six-game match against Deep Blue, the cutting-edge super computer developed by IBM, led by Feng-Hsiung Hsu. No machine has ever defeated a chess champion in a multi-game match.
If it happens, it will be a major turning point in human history. This is, as Newsweek declares on its cover, “The Brain’s Last Stand.” Will the human mind prevail? Or is this checkmate for humankind?
Told through the three-time National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin's searingly propulsive storytelling and first-hand accounts from chess Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, with riveting illustrations by Eisner winner Thien Pham (Family Style: A Memoir), this nail-biting narrative captures the excitement and suspense of a classic sports showdown, along with thought-provoking themes about where humanity stands at the rise of AI.
Orders due by end of day on September 10, 2026.
Questions? Email events@lindentreebooks.com.