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Another great way to practice chess skills is a puzzle called Mentagy, it was created by a chess instructor: Mentagy

"A Mind-Expanding Strategy Puzzle

This puzzle was created with the idea of helping my chess students, whose ages range from 6 to 15, understand certain concepts about choosing a chess move. When solving this puzzle you frequently encounter situations where you have several choices. In chess we refer to these choices as Candidate Moves. The term Candidate Move was popularized by the Russian author Alexander Kotov in his book: Think Like a Grandmaster. The methods used for determining the right choice in this puzzle are similar to the methods used for determining the best candidate move in a chess position"

DD likes Chess Titans, but has not yet won against Level 1. She often puts the computer in check but has not successfuly checkmated. I wonder if anyone could suggest a book aimed at true beginners (well, she knows how the pieces move, obviously, but you know--a book with simple strategies, exercises, etc).

You might want to take a look at Murray Chandler's books on Amazon. He has three books for kids, starting with "Chess for Children", and then moving up to "Chess Tactics for Kids", and then "How to beat your dad at chess". All three are highly rated, and the reviews should help you figure out which one is best for your DD.

My son really enjoyed "How to beat your dad at chess" when he read it a couple of years ago. And it was about that time that he really did start beating me.

The most selective colleges (Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Princeton) all have far more valedictorians applying than they could possibly accept, so what makes some candidates, including those that are not valedictorians, get selected?

My nephew at Yale (not niece as I said earlier) thinks they look for "pointy people" as opposed to well-rounded people. They look for applicants that absolutely excel at what they do, whether it is academic research (my nephew's strength), sports, national math/science contests, musical instruments, drama, community service, or yes, even chess (his roommate was ranked 2nd nationally).

Thanks for the book recs! Just nobody read them to my 3yo, okay? It already takes me waaaaay too long to beat him. (Yes, I do sometimes let him win, too.)