This Month's Offer and Notifications. Item in Online-Only Also Available in. AR: 5. Paperback Book. Short Summary Nothing is as it seems in this whip-smart story, a twisting mystery that rockets along with humor and suspense toward a wonderfully clever conclusion.
I am a teacher. Sixteen people have been invited to the reading of eccentric millionaire Samuel W. Westing's will. It's an odd assortment of heirs—there's an inventor, a track star, a bird watcher, a bomber, a burglar, and…a mistake.
They've all come to stake their claim to the Westing fortune, but instead of an inheritance, they get some stunning news: one of them is Sam Westing's murderer, and the entire fortune will go to the heir who solves the crime! The heirs and the mistake are broken up into pairs, with each team receiving a clue. A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W.
Westing's will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger—and a possible murderer—to inherit his vast fortune, one thing's for sure: Sam Westing may be dead Get A Copy. Paperback , Penguin , pages. Published April 12th by Puffin first published June 1st More Details Original Title.
Samuel W. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Westing Game , please sign up. What's the greatest challenge that the hero must confront. Gladius Other than the race to win the game, Turtle had to break free of her sister's shadow. Their mother always liked Angela better, and Turtle lacked confi …more Other than the race to win the game, Turtle had to break free of her sister's shadow. Their mother always liked Angela better, and Turtle lacked confidence because of that.
The greatest challenge she confronted was her confidence in herself. Maybe the book doesn't support this, but I do. Would it be too scary for an 11 year old girl? That thinks the hunger games are creepy. Just mysterious. See all 33 questions about The Westing Game…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Westing Game. View all 83 comments. Jul 09, Wil Wheaton rated it really liked it. Really fun, and I know without hesitation what third or fourth grade me loved about it.
I felt like maybe it dragged a tiny bit in the back half of the second act, but I think that's just me getting ahead of the narrative, and being a little out of the demo.
But if you're like 11 to 13? Holy crap, you're gonna love this book, and be on board with it pretty much from the first chapter. It was written in , but it doesn't feel dated other than the technology , and it ages very well. It has a di Really fun, and I know without hesitation what third or fourth grade me loved about it. It has a diverse cast, which I didn't appreciate as a kid, because I didn't know any better, but which I deeply appreciate now. Much of it reads as brief vignettes, which made it very easy to pick up and put down.
I highly recommend this for young readers, and I highly recommend it a second time to adults who read it when we were kids. View all 28 comments. Mar 02, T rated it it was ok. This book sounded like it would be lots of fun, and I read it hoping for a great mystery. In the end I think there were too many characters, and not enough information to make any of them seem real to me.
I never really got why they were who they were, except on the most basic level. Each character was just glossed over, and even though they were described in a basic way, there was nothing to really draw me in or make me care about them. View all 22 comments. Jul 07, carol. The Westing Game is first full-length mystery I remember reading. Well, besides Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew books.
But the one mystery that I could still have told you general details about the plot. It might have been the cleverness of the mystery or it's absence of gore. It could have been identification with the shin-kicking protagonist, nicknamed 'Turtle. Whatever it was, Raskin's story stayed The Westing Game is first full-length mystery I remember reading.
Whatever it was, Raskin's story stayed with me for years. Opening page: "The sun sets in the west just about everyone knows that , but Sunset Towers faced east. Sunset Towers faced east and had no towers. This glittery, glassy apartment house stood alone on the Lake Michigan shore five stories high.
Five empty stories high. Then one day it happened to be the Fourth of July , a most uncommon-looking delivery boy rode around town slipping letters under the doors of the chosen tenants-to-be. The letters were signed Barney Northrup. The delivery boy was sixty-two years old, and there was no such person as Barney Northrup. Initially, they are convinced to rent or buy units in the newly constructed Sunset Towers, a small building that has room for a coffee shop, a restaurant and a small office, perfect for further enticing the future tenants.
The tenants discover they have something additional in common when they are called together for the reading of Sam Westing's will. An isolating snowstorm ramps up the tension. Narration is third person, which is solidly done. Initially, all the characters have aspects that make them seem flawed, or perhaps somewhat unlikable. Interestingly, however, it was probably one of the broadest casts I can remember reading: a black woman who is now a judge, who grew up poor; a Greek family, whose skin is 'darker' than the black woman's an interesting concept for a young white kid!
We pop in and out of most of their heads at some point, which ends up giving the reader more insight than they each have on each other. There's accusations in a review or two of racism, but on adult read, I'd say that the racism is all internal to the characters, and Raskin does a solid job of showing how things a certain character might say or do regarding someone else's race is about their own knowledge deficits.
I found only a couple of moments for me that might not pass the twenty-first century sniff test: One of the characters, Chris, has some sort of unspecified physical disability that impairs movement and speech.
One of the questionable moments comes up when his brother, Theo, tells someone else that they don't need to talk to Chris like a baby, "because he's not retarded. I thought The Westing Game held up well. It's told in an omniscient third person, and tends to switch person and location fairly frequently.
I think it is definitely a YA, but in the best sense of the word. Many of the techniques it uses are great for people that are younger and haven't figured some of this out yet; ie.
The shifts in perspective and time work well for developing empathy--I think each character goes through a redemption arc, and even the one I remember disliking the most--Otis--was shown to be something other than appearance suggested. I ended up searching out a hardcover for my own library, and am glad to have it around. View all 23 comments. Nov 15, Jen rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: elementary girls with long hair. Shelves: classics , bc-before-college , children-s , sisters-book-club , col-mustard-in-the-parlor.
I think I first read The Westing Game in third or fourth grade. I checked it out of a public school library in Missouri. I loved it, returned it, and checked it again a few months later on another weekly library visit. Two things: 1. Why should children only go to the library once a week? My education would have been brighter and fuller had I just stayed in the library. Other kids could have had more time with the restroom pass, but instead I hoarded that thing and sat on the white raised seat I think I first read The Westing Game in third or fourth grade.
Other kids could have had more time with the restroom pass, but instead I hoarded that thing and sat on the white raised seat reading away.
I loved Turtle, the girl with the braids that beg to be pulled. I braided my hair like Turtle's and liked whirling around and using them as weapons against boys coming in for the kisschase win. Which was a good development because a couple of years earlier I bit Rashad Ware when he lumbered towards me for a smooch. I told my parents that I didn't bite him; just was running with my mouth open and happened to want to close it when his arm showed up Back to the book. Still, years later, in love with Turtle, only the mother in me now has room to love Flora Baumbach, hair braider, as well.
And Mrs. So, still in love with the book. The whizzbang puzzle mystery abides, only the clues are not as mysterious and I did wish that purple waves meant something really, really sinister and twisted. But that's just my maturity showing. Home for more than a decade to one.
Logan Bruno likes Mary Anne! He has a dreamy southern accent, he's awfully cute and he wants to join the Baby-sitters Club. The Baby-sitters aren't sure Logan will make a good club member.
And Mary Anne thinks she's too shy for Logan. Life in the Baby-sitters Club has never been. Tom Jackson's mental illness is difficult for his entire family, but particularly so for his sixteen-year-old son Kevin who wonders if he has the same affliction.
Run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with E. Basil E. Frankweiler—now available in a deluxe keepsake edition! Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away…. Unravel the secrets at the center of an intriguing murder mystery game.
But she wanted a lake view. Believe me, you get the same luxuries here at a third of the price. In one day he had rented all of Sunset Towers to the people whose names were already printed on the mailboxes in an alcove off the lobby: Who were these people, these specially selected tenants?
They were mothers and fathers and children. A dressmaker, a secretary, an inventor, a doctor, a judge. And, oh yes, one was a bookie, one was a burglar, one was a bomber, and one was a mistake. Barney Northrup had rented one of the apartments to the wrong person.
The newly paved driveway curved sharply and doubled back on itself rather t han breach the city-county line. Sunset Towers stood at the far edge of town. Only three people came. It was, indeed, an exclusive neighborhood; too exclusive for Mr. Sunset Towers was a quiet, well-run building, and except for the grumbling Mr. Hoo the people who lived there seemed content. The big problems were yet to come. Now it was the end of October. A cold, raw wind whipped dead leaves about the ankles of the four people grouped in the Sunset Towers driveway, but not one of them shivered.
Not yet. The two slim, trim high-school seniors, shielding their eyes against the stinging chill, were Theo Theodorakis and Doug Hoo. The small, wiry man pointing to the house on the hill was Otis Amber, the sixty-two-year-old delivery boy. They faced north, gaping like statues cast in the moment of discovery, until Turtle Wexler, her kite tail of a braid flying behind her, raced her bicycle into the driveway.
What did she think they were looking at anyway? Turtle leaned on the handlebars, panting for breath. Sunset Towers was near excellent schools, as Barney Northrup had promised, but the junior high was four miles away.
Other author's books: The Westing Game.
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