The Westing Game [Paperback]

Ellen Raskin (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 1, 1997 | Age Range: 8 and up | Lexile Measure: 750L (What's this?)

For over twenty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery Medal-winning The Westing Game has been an enduring favorite. It has sold over one and a half million copies. This highly inventive mystery involves sixteen people who are invited to the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. They could become millionaires-it all depends on how they play the tricky and dangerous Westing game, a game involving blizzards, burglaries, and bombings! Ellen Raskin has created a remarkable cast of characters in a puzzle-knotted, word-twisting plot filled with humor, intrigue, and suspense.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A supersharp mystery. . . . Confoundingly clever, and very funny. (Booklist, starred review)

About the Author

Ellen Raskin is the author of numerous books for young readers, including Figgs & Phantoms, a Newbery Honor book. She died in 1986.

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Product Details

• Age Range: 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Puffin; REP REI edition (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140386645
• ISBN-13: 978-0140386646
• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 0.7 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (850 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

169 of 182 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The years pass, and still a must-read May 29, 2000

By Ilana Teitelbaum

Format:Paperback

'The Westing Game' was my favorite book as a pre-teen, so when I returned to it years later, my expectations were low. Was I wrong! This book might be accessible to younger readers, but no one who loves a mystery with incredible characters should miss this for the world.

While the plot centers around a less than run-of-the-mill whodunit, the book mainly focuses on the characters: each unique, bizarre, and ultimately endearing. The author manages to make them quirky without making them caricatures. The developing relationships between the 'heirs' as they attempt to unravel the mystery, is, I think, far more important than the mystery itself; they also develop in their sense of identity. These are all themes any adult can appreciate, woven into the story with humor and sly understatement, yet in effect deeply moving.

The plot is complex and suspenseful, layered so impenetrably that at least one surprise at the end is inevitable. Yet even when wrapped in the most logical of puzzles, the author never loses the human touch. There are many scenes portrayed with hilarious, touching absurdity; and Raskin is dead-on with her take on human nature, even when her depiction seems exaggerated.

Read it for a good chuckle--but in the end it may be more than that.

64 of 69 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Westing Review May 4, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin is a must read book. It won the John Newbery Medal and everyone can see how it won. It is a mystery about Sam Westing who was murdered on Halloween by one of his neices or nephews. In his will he gives out clues like when he says "May God let Gold Refine" and when he says "My soul will roam relentlessly untill that one is found! " The heirs who find the murderer will inherit his millions of dollars! The author of this book can make you twist and turn. You will almost know who the murderer is then she decides to say that person is innocent in some way. She has an excellent word choice and she is an even better author. This book was good and sometimes I read one to two hours past my bed time. This is one of the best mysteries ever. I hope you also decide to read this book! Enjoy!

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Like reading a game of Clue; very entertaining and clever March 4, 2009

By Karissa Eckert TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I got this book in a clearance bundle of books that I bought to get a different book. I was trying to decide if I should read it or swap it and after seeing it was a Newberry Medal book I decided to read it. This was a very entertaining book.

In this book a number of people are offered the chance to move into an exclusive condo building. Shortly thereafter they receive notice that they have been listed in the will of the founder of Westing Paper Company. Only it is a bizarre will and rather than being straightforward it requires the potential heirs to engage themselves in a game to find out who murdered Mr. Westing. Thus the Westing Game begins.

This was a clever little book. It is not necessarily a quick read, since the reader must pay attention to all the little details in the book. Nonetheless I found myself enjoying this book immensely. It is a very classic mystery type of book and reads a bit like I would imagine a game of Clue would (if you could read a game).

There are many twists and many interesting characters. It was fun to try to figure out how all of the characters are tied to Mr. Westing. This was the type of book that you could either read and let it give you the answers or you could exercise your brain along the way and try to guess the answers before the book gives them to you.

Well written and very clever I thought this was a very interesting and entertaining book. It makes me want to check out more of Ellen Raskin's books.