The Westing Game
Several families are offered apartments in beautiful Sunset Towers – the offers are so good, in fact, they can’t refuse them. Sunset Towers overlooks the Westing estate, home of eccentric millionaire Sam Westing. Shortly after everyone settles into Sunset Towers, Sam Westing passes away. All the tenants (plus a few others) are summoned to the Westing mansion for the reading of his will.
At the reading, the heirs are divided into eight groups of two and each pair is given four single word clues that seem meaningless. They’re told that, “It is not what you have, it’s what you don’t have that counts.” They all assume that the winner of the game will inherit the estate, so each team tries to figure out their clues and everyone else’s too.
When I started The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, I was afraid that I would be confused by the abundance of characters. There was no need to worry, though, because they were easy to keep up with once they were paired up. This book won the Newbery Medal in 1979 and I can see why – I thought it was fantastic!
The mystery in The Westing Game is well developed and a lot of fun. There is a puzzle of sorts to figure out, and the pieces to the puzzle are slowly provided to the reader. I thought the puzzle was clever and unique. I’m happy to say that I was on the right track, but didn’t figure it out completely until the characters did.
The best part of The Westing Game for me was the characters, though. They were paired in such a terrific way and they each helped their partner develop in some way without even knowing it. I loved that the characters had such unique personalities and that the “game” helped them all learn to appreciate each other.
This YA novel is a lot of fun and it will appeal to teen-agers and adults alike and I do recommend it.
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Challenges: Shelf Discovery Challenge, Books Won Reading Challenge
I have always wanted to read The Westing Game, but it has always gotten pushed to the bottom of the TBR pile. Nice review, and I’m glad you enjoyed it so! And you’ve encouraged me to pick it up now and read it!
This sounds so good! I’ve enjoyed all the Newbery winners I’ve read to date, and I think this would be no exception.
This sounds so fun! Actually it also sounds like a reality show! I love Newbery winners – they so rarely disappoint!
i LOVED this book when i was younger. it was one of my favorite newberry reads
Sounds like one that I need to add to my list!
Great review. You already know this was one of my favorites as a kid. I thought it was so clever!
I can’t believe I’ve never read this. It sounds like I need to get on the ball!
Kathy, it has been many years since I read THE WESTING GAME. Since my daughter was in elementary school I think and her school librarian was pointing me at many, many wonderful books. I loved that librarian. I think this will be just the perfect book to pick up for a weekend read soon. Thanks for highlighting it!
This is my sister’s favorite book (and I enjoy it too!) So glad you liked it and I definitely encourage everyone else to read it as well. It’s not very long and it’s a Newbery winner
I read this with my son years ago. I think we still have it–may have to pick it up again.
Never heard of this one growing up, but I sure do want to know how the game ended up working out for everyone.
I haven’t head of this one. It sounds great. Sometimes I get lost when there are too many characters. I’m glad you were able to keep up with them. I’ll have to keep an eye out for this one.
I’m sorry to say I haven’t heard of this book. The plot idea sounds fun and, if the characters are good, well then, I need to find this one. I’m going to check the library this week. Thanks for the tip.
I actually do this book as a novel study with my fourth graders and they love it We keep a “detectives notebook” to track all the characters and the clues and the kids LOVE it!! It is a great book with good characters and good mystery! I am glad that you enjoyed it as well because it is one of my favorites!
Sounds fascinating! And I like that the number of characters don’t overwhelm the reader.
Hmmm…now I know where 39 Clues got the idea! Sounds suspiciously similar.
I read this book in school as a kid, and I remember liking it. I think it would be fun to re-read it with The Girl, especially since I don’t really remember the story.
That sounds really good!! Off to Amazon I go…
This is one of my favorites! Ellen Raskin charms me. Apparently when she wrote this book, she didn’t plan forward, just made up the plot as she went along. So impressive for an intricately plotted book like this!
This was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. In fact, it’s one of the few I’ve kept on my bookshelf.
Kathy, I’d heard of this book before but didn’t know about the “puzzle”. Sounds quite good!
I’ve never heard of this book, but it sounds like it’d be a fun read. Great review, Kathy! I just added this to my list.
I love this book! We read it in 6th grade and I too feared that I would mix up all the characters’ stories but the author prevents that from happening. Sandy was probably my favorite character along with Turtle. All these characters had such funny and odd personalities and the mystery was really good 🙂
I remember reading this as a kid and loving it, but I don’t really remember what it is about. I’ll have to give it a try since it seemed to work for you.
I just read this one recently for the first time too. I wish that I had read it as a child, because I think I would have loved it even more then.
This just sounds like a ton of fun! I’m intrigued!
I loved this book when I was a kid! 😀
Oh my, this sounds like such a fun read ! I’ve not heard of this book before this, but now I’ll certainly look out for it !
This really does sound fun!
I loved this book when I read it as a youngster 🙂
I read this a couple of years ago, and loved it too! Someone suggested it as a beginners mystery book, and since I hadn’t read very many mysteries, I took the bait. I also passed it to my middle school aged daughter, and she loved it as well. I am so glad you liked it! I bet I still have my copy around here somewhere!
glad to hear that you got to keep all the characters straight!
I liked this book too. And I liked that there’s a character named Turtle — that was a big part of the draw for me.
I really enjoyed this when I read it a few years ago.
I’m sorry I missed this one growing up, it sound fantastic. I’ll just have to get a copy and read it now though huh?
This definitely sounds like a fun novel! I don’t think I have read this one though.
Oh man, I loved THE WESTING GAME when I was a kid. I also enjoyed A TATTOOED POTATO AND OTHER CLUES plus a couple of her illustrated children’s books.
Waaayyyy back in the day, we had to read Newbery Medal books for school. I never found one I liked until this one. I LOVED this book! I couldn’t believe I stumbled upon it either. I think they made a movie at one time too. Great book and one I would def re-read 🙂