The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Raskin, E. (1978). The Westing game. New York: Dutton.

Ellen Raskin's chapter book mystery proves her comment about her books: ""I try to say one thing with my work: A book is a wonderful place to be. A book is a package, a gift package, a surprise package -- and within the wrappings is a whole new world and beyond."  The Westing Game is an adventure to solve a murder mystery.  The protagonist Turtle, is a plain, neglected schoolgirl who lives in the shadow of her gorgeous older sister.  Turtle takes the reader through the lives of her confidants in the luxury apartment building, Sandy, the doorman, Baba the dressmaker, Crow, the housecleaner, and others. All the residents compete to solve the mystery of who killed the multi-millionaire, Mr. Westing. Turtle, a young mischievous child who kicks people in the shin when she is mad, learns to play the stock market, markets hand-made candles which are used to fuse bombs, and competes with an apartment building full of residents to inherit the Westing millions. 

Ginny Moore Kruse, author of "Ellen Raskin: Notable Wisconsin Author," comments that  "Although she [Ellen Raskin] considered herself an artist first and foremost, she . . .  was named a Newbery Honor Book and The Westing Game won the 1979 Newberry Medal for distinguished writing."  Ellen Raskin succeeded in multiple fields, art, writing, and finance, and traced her writing process for future writers so that they could plan the plot the plots of their books and see how to structure  character, setting, plot, and other aspects of a story.  Her documents can be seen at the web site of the Cooperative Children's Book Center of the University of Wisconsin. The explanation of the manuscript can be seen here: https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/authors/raskin/intro.htm

Activities

1.  Here are some quizzes to encourage students to pay attention to the clues and details in the mystery story, one of which is called "Murder, Madness, and Mayhen":

http://www.shmoop.com/westing-game/quizzes.html

2. Have the students research and define the stock market.

3. Have the students create a time-line of events in the novel and plot the events and clues in the story.

4. Ask students to trace the events in the life story of one character of their choice and evaluate the character's life changes and decisions.

5. Ask students to draw a haunted mansion and the contents which are suitable for a millionaire.

Questions for Reflection: 

1. How does Turtle feel about her parents, sister, and other adults?

2. How does the reader know Turtle is very intelligent and competent?

3.  Why doesn't Angela really want to get married?

4.  What income bracket do the characters fall in?