"A supersharp nfoundingly clever, and very funny." - Booklist, starred review
Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book AwardĪ School Library Journal One Hundred Books That Shaped the Century
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. This highly inventive mystery involves sixteen people who are invited to the reading of Samuel W. As in all her novels, the happy ending is surprising and wildly original, and the wit is honest and tough.For over thirty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery Medal-winning The Westing Game has been an enduring favorite. In The Westing Game, the last novel she published in her lifetime, Raskin summarizes and resolves some of her recurring themes with an emphasis on hope and forgiveness. The evolution of the relationships among the wildly disparate and cranky Westing heirs is as important in the novel as the solution of the mystery. The cast of characters includes a new immigrant, a minority member, a disabled person, a stereotyped woman, and a poor person. She is especially sensitive to the plight of characters who, while they are part of American society, are perceived as different from other people. Raskin's humor celebrates the variety and richness of the human experience and wittily assesses its shortcomings. She examines the degree to which family members can influence children and the need for young people to determine their own destinies. Raskin explores their life in light of the need for love, the challenge of American business, and the possibility of getting a second chance in life. While Sam Westing and his wife achieved the good life, they sacrificed their daughter along the way. In addition to being a satisfying mystery, The Westing Game is Raskin's exploration of material success and the importance of money. Would-be heirs play both chess and the stock market in their attempts to solve the puzzle and gain a fortune. Like Figgs & Phantoms and The Tattooed Potato & Other Clues, The Westing Game incorporates some of Raskin's special interests. Inspired by the intrigue surrounding Howard Hughes's will and by the celebration of the bicentennial of the United States, the novel combines a tricky mystery with a tribute to American opportunity. Sixteen interesting and bizarre characters, who live in a mysterious apartment building, compete to become heir to the Westing millions. The Westing Game is Raskin's closest approach to a classic mystery story.
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