The Westing Game (Puffin Modern Classics)

I used to adventure through my local library, picking books based solely on their covers, discovering hidden treasures that had been put back on the wrong shelf or tucked away in a lost corner. That’s how I found and fell in love with this story. But, for quite a long time after reading it, I honestly thought that I had made it up, because I couldn’t find it again. The copy I returned to the library disappeared, making me wonder if I had sadly missed my call to be some sort of fabulous protagonist who fell into the pages of a magical volume, and I couldn’t ever find another, no matter where I looked. Online, physical stores, there was nothing. Then, one day, long after I’d given up on ever seeing it again, this novel appeared on a list of Kindle sales I received. I snagged it for $1.99 and was finally reassured that I hadn’t imagined this incredible novel, which is awesome for y’all, because that means you get to read it too! The plot centers around the distribution of a very large inheritance that can only be earned by solving a riddle posed in a will. This is, essentially, a puzzle. It’s meant for you to try to figure it out as you go along, which I think all avid thriller readers pretty much do anyway, but it’s a little more straightforward here because this is technically meant for a younger audience. Still, there is a lot of intrigue, especially since there are so many characters, and every one of them has a secret. There are some pretty mature themes, considering the audience, but overall, it’s heartwarming and might keep you guessing until the end, depending on how thorough you are in your search for the answer. And you will be tempted, because stylistically, the design makes the clues and notes stick out in their presentation. In terms of triggers, there are bombs, chronic illness, death, and grief on display here, but all topics are dealt with respectfully and do not overtake the narrative. Overall, while this may seem simplistic, especially if you read a lot of mysteries already, it is great fun and a quick read on a gloomy afternoon. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone, because I think it has something for all readers to enjoy.

It’s a very good book especially for junior high school students.

This was a reread, hadn’t read in decades since childhood. Really cool mystery I remembered parts of but not the whole…I definitely didn’t ’figure it out’. But had a lot of fun with it.

The Westing Game mystery is contained in format font placement scansion visual cues and only genuinely comprehensible in print How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading Mortimer Adler The Great Books THE GREAT IDEAS PROGRAM: A General Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education [10 Volume set ]. Westing Game bridges the gap between infant picture books and word books for beginning readers before they tackle paragraph books transposed onto 5th grade and above developmental reading transitions. Instead of photos or illustrations, visual intricacy (and devious deceit) is hidden in bookbinding terms: font (bold vs plain), paragraph separators (dots white space) and very sneaky interruptions in the dialogue which provide visual clues on the page which can be only detected by being seen. We read this book repeatedly as a Halloween tradition, and I find that appreciation for the ingenious allusions, clues and easily missed tantalizing information only increase on repeated reading during adulthood. Sydelle's painted crutches are intuitive clues from a very intelligent but lonely woman. The psychological portraits of the characters are revealed like peeling onions layer by layer, first superficial appearances, then deeper emotions, and finally hidden behaviors: bookie, bomber, thief, inventor, social climber, chess player, imposter. I am a bookbinder calligrapher Literacy Through the Book Arts Paul Johnson, By J. A. Szirmai - The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding (New Edition) (1999-08-16) [Hardcover ], journaler The Story of Writing Donald Jackson, A History of Illuminated Manuscripts Christopher de Hamel and journaler Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, The . Westing Game is a contemporary non-illustrated book which utilizes the visual device of manipulating words on the page for sly commentary, a technique common in medieval hand bound books via illumination. At first I limited myself to only the first chapter, stopped to draw a map of Westingtown, the floor plans of each of the 5 stories of Sunset Towers, cut out magazine photos to represent each of the characters which gathered all the information together before I embarked on the second chapter. I discovered at the end of the book that the entire mystery was contained in the first sentence of the first chapter, and was well elaborated through the first chapter. But I could not know that before reading the entire book. Adler suggests reading a book slowly, marking underlining, posing questions which puzzle the first time around. Then rereading a second time with a different color pen, new questions. Why does Sunset Towers face East? 5* not just for the brain tickling written mystery but the visual delight of a well planned and thought out book print design. The Avon Flare version has a trio of portraits to get the mind thinking in visual terms: Turtle in witch's gear, Chris with birdwatching binoculars, Chef Theodorakis.

This is a great story, loads of puzzling fun. My 6th graders were excited to follow the clues, and we had some great debates about the story. But this particular edition is terribly disappointing. The font size is very small, and the pages have narrow margins and not much white space. Maybe the publisher was trying to economize on costs of paper and shipping weight, but the reader suffers. I can imagine a kid opening this edition and seeing tiny, nearly edge-to-edge print, and saying, "It's too hard. I don't want to read that." I ended up buying a digital edition to avoid the eye strain.

Fantastic book! My son loved it

I bought The Westing Game for my teen as another way to encourage more reading, and it was a hit. The mystery is smart, fast-paced, and fun to follow — perfect for keeping a young reader’s attention. The paperback version is easy to carry around and great for school or travel. A great addition to any teen’s growing book collection, especially if they like puzzles, twists, and quirky characters.

This is a well executed, thought out, fun read for both young adults and for the young at heart. Looking up more reads by this author!

I could not stop reading this book! THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin is a phenomenal mystery, and I’m actually in awe of how good it is. As I was reading it, I kept forgetting it’s a novel as it seemed more like a puzzle, and the writing style is just amazing. It’s one of the children’s titles for my postgrad creative writing course, but it reminded me so much of Virginia Woolf’s style. I actually googled the book to see if it’s taught to children at schools (or just used for degree level courses) because of this almost stream-of-consciousness style and complexity, with so many beautiful nuanced layers. It’s recommended for ages 10 and upward, and I have since learnt it's taught widely in US schools, but as a UK reader, I hadn't heard of this book at all--and here it often seems only to be taught to adults as an example of how children’s stories should be as complex as adult stories, as obviously you shouldn’t “write down” to children. It will give great satisfaction to adult readers who may be reading it aloud to children, as they’ll understand the more complex themes in it that younger children may not. Though I think children 10 and older would grasp the deeper meanings in this book, and YA readers certainly will. The story follows 16 people (a mixture of children, teenagers, and adults) as they listen to the reading of Sam Westing’s will and discover that one of them is a murderer. All 16 are then thrown into the Westing Game where each must solve clues pertaining to the identity of the murderer. At times, these clues are almost set out like an instruction manual for a game, so we, as the readers, are also playing along. It’s this interactive quality that I’m finding so addictive. It took me a little while to get into this book, mainly because there are just so many main characters, and we're not told a whole lot about these to start with. But we're thrown right into the mystery, and it's like we're trying to solve the mystery at the same time as learn about the characters--which does work really well as we're trying to work out who the murderer is. And working out who the murderer is was just something I couldn't do--which rarely happens. But I really had no idea. And for that, I loved this book. It's just so powerful and it was refreshing to read such a complex and wonderfully plotted mystery that kept me on my toes as a reader. I was really making sure to read every single word on each page in case I missed a clue. Also, the narrative devices in this book are great. We've got multimedia in this as we get recounts of Sam Westing's will and other documents. And all of these are clues for the mystery too! The ending of the book was...strange. I don't know, it's hard to describe it without getting into spoiler territory. Because there are big twists, and though these were satisfying, I was kind of waiting for something more to happen as I was reading...but then by the time I got to the very last page, I realised that the ending was perfect as it was. If there had been another twist it probably would've detracted from the quietly powerful ending--where the true impact of it only hits you after you've stopped reading and you've got time to think. And those final pages, where time suddenly speeds up and we learn what happens to the children as they grow up and the deaths of the older characters who were adults in the story is really heartbreaking. It's really powerful writing. Turtle was by far my favourite character, swiftly followed by Angela. These two characters (sisters) really complimented each other, and I loved how many layers they each had, especially the darkness in Angela as (spoiler) she turns out to be the bomber. I also loved Sydelle and Otis (calling Otis the '65 year old delivery boy' was fantastic, by the way!). The other characters (with the exception of Grace, the mother of Angela and Turtle), although still strong with characterisation, didn't quite have the same impact on me as these characters. I think it's because there are just so many main characters in this book. It was a bit overwhelming. For a long time, I didn't even realise that Crow would be a significant character either. So that threw me a little. Disability representation is also amazing, with the character of Chris who's a wheelchair user--and I loved how this book has other characters making assumptions about Chris and being stereotypical, but that these characters are then either called out, or the narrative voice becomes really snarky as it tackles the misconception. This is honestly one of the best books I've read for disability representation. (And equally, it's not just disability that the book calls out about this; there's also a lot on feminism and the role of women, with characters fighting stereotypes and 'traditional' views.) The writing style of THE WESTING GAME is fun and snarky, and I can see why it would appeal a lot to children and teenagers. It's just so plucky and fun to read, and the narrative voice of the book is really great. There is a lot of head-hopping in the stream-of-consciousness style as we're bounced from one character to another, but uniting all these characters is this snarky voice--which is both snarky and judgmental on the current POV character and about others in general. And because the head-hopping is constant, and the whole thing is written in this style, very similar to Woolf's, this is one of the rare instances where I do feel that the head-hopping works. This is a masterful piece of writing. Highly recommended.

Good story

I picked this book up to read with my son as a summer novel study project. I'm a big fan of cozy mysteries, so I had hoped to introduce my son to the genre with this book. We both enjoyed it a great deal. Although written in the late 70s, it has withstood the test of time very, very well. The characters are vivid and full of personality, and Raskin does a very good job of helping the reader remember who is who. (Very helpful for younger readers who aren't used to mystery novels.) I found the mystery itself pretty easy to solve, but my son had a little bit of a harder time. The main clue is something tied to pre-70s and 80s American culture, which is a bit of an obstacle for younger Canadian readers. But, as we talked the clues over and I showed him something (after it was revealed in the book), it all started to come together. This is still a very accessible book, even to today's middle grade readers.

I have to reread this novel one day, because right now I feel like it is not awesome. Yes, it is quite intriguing, but I think it could be better, maybe written in a slighty different way. Overall, I didn't get it completely. Surely, I recommend it, but it isn't one of my favourite-favourite; for example, I did not love it like I love Holes by Louis Sachar.

It was a really great book. If your thinking of getting it, just get it.