I think this book is very sneaky, this author, Ellen Raskin, I thought was very clever about this book. I liked this book very much and I thought that a lot of people at the end of the book didn’t understand what happened including me. But then, I got it and thought to myself, wow this was very good.
In LA class we read The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. As a extra credit we could dress up as one of the characters. I chose to dress up as Turtle Wexler. Since in the book they don’t talk about what Turtle wears, expect that she is a tom boy, I had to guess at what to wear. We had to bring a prop with the costume, so I carried a striped candle, that lit the bombs. Most of the girls who dressed up, dressed up as Turtle Wexler, too. I had fun dressing up.
When I first started reading The Westing Game, I thought it was just going to be another mystery, where you know who committed the crime halfway through the book. As my class progressed through the book, I started to realize that The Westing Game was much more complicated than I thought. Ellen Raskin, the author, writes so many clues; some are hidden, and some are put right under your nose, but you don’t notice them. Simple words such as rose (don’t worry, this is not a spoiler) suddenly become blaring clues. It’s amazing how such a simple book can be so complex. The Westing Game may seem like just another mystery book, but I strongly recommend that you read it.
Photo Screenshot by me
Ellen Raskin writes so perfectly, each word where she wants them to be. How she placed the words in the story so thoughtfully is so hard to believe. For example, two of the themes of the book are patriotism and games. These two themes come up so much in the book in subtle ways. Although there isn’t a variety of games in this book the one big game is chess. For example, there are sixteen heirs and sixteen chess pieces on one side of the board. Also, there is a move that applies to the game that Sam Westing always does in chess called The Queen’s Sacrifice. Patriotism comes up a lot especially about 4th of July like when the tenants to-be recieved their note about Sunset Towers.
The last thing I would say is don’t fall for everything each character says and thinks and how they act, and don’t rule out ANY possibilities.
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