In the Library With A Candlestick

The Westing Game
By Ellen Raskin, 1978
182 p.
RL: 5+  
IL: 10-13 years old

Awards: Newbery Award, ALA Notable Children’s Book, Banta Literary Award, Horn Book Award, Library of Congress Children’s Book.

Reviews: Booklist Starred, School Library Journal, Wilson’s. On California’s Recommended Reading List grades 6-8

The Westing Game begins with 16 people from different walks of life who move into the new Sunset Towers high rise apartments. They don’t realize it, but they have all been hand selected to move in. Sunset Towers is next door to the Westing Mansion which is owned by Sam Westing, a rich industrialist. He is also the owner of the Sunset Towers.

On Halloween one tenant, Turtle, is dared to go into the Westing Mansion, where she sees a dead body. The next day she reads an obituary for Sam Westing and she- along with 15 other people, many who are residents of Sunset Towers- find out that they are heirs to the Westing Estate. At the reading of the Will they find out that Sam Westing believed he was murdered and that one of the heirs is the murderer.  At the instructions of the will, the heirs are paired up, given $10,000 and 4 clues and asked to play a game to solve they mystery of Sam’s murder. Whichever figures out who the murderer is will inherit Sam’s estate of 200 million dollars.

From here the reader is taken on adventure where things are not always what they seem. Each team speeds along, interpreting their clues while trying to find out what clues the others have received. This is a great book for readers who like puzzles and well developed characters. It works particularly well in literature circles or as a classroom novel.