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The Westing Game is a mystery book written by Ellen Raskin and published by Dutton in 1978. It won the Newbery Medal recognizing the year's most distinguished contribution to American children's literature.[1] The Westing Game was ranked number nine all-time among children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal in 2012.[2] It has been adapted as the 1997 feature film Get a Clue (also distributed as The Westing Game).[3] Plot summary[edit]Sunset Towers is a new apartment building on Lake Michigan, north of Milwaukee and just down the shore from the mansion owned by reclusive self-made millionaire Samuel W. Westing. (Despite its name, Sunset Towers faces east – into the sunrise.) Sam Westing was a wealthy businessman who made his fortune in paper products. He was very patriotic and never smoked, drank, or gambled. As the story opens, Barney Northrup is selling apartments to a carefully selected group of tenants. After Sam Westing dies, at the beginning of the book, it emerges that most of the tenants are named as heirs in Westing's will. The will is structured like a puzzle, with the 16 heirs challenged to find the solution. In the will it states that one of his heirs has taken his life. Each of the eight pairs, assigned seemingly at random, is given $10,000 cash and a different set of baffling clues. The pair that solves the mystery of his death will inherit Westing's entire $200 million fortune and control of his company. Characters[edit]Pair One[edit]
Pair Two[edit]
Pair Three[edit]
Pair Four[edit]
Pair Five[edit]
Pair Six[edit]
Pair Seven[edit]
Pair Eight[edit]
Other characters[edit]
Epilogue[edit]The epilogue of the story is told in the book's last three chapters, which depict what happened to the heirs after the game ended, and how it affected them.
Other media[edit]The Westing Game, adapted to a stage play by Darian Lindle and directed by Terry Brino-Dean, was first produced at Prime Stage Theatre in Pittsburgh in 2009. The script is published by Dramatic Publishing.[4] Get a Clue, adapted by Dylan Kelsey Hadley and directed by Terence H. Winkless, was produced for television in 1997. It was announced on September 9, 2020 that HBO Max has placed a script-to-series order based on the book.[5] Reception[edit]At the time of the book's publication, Kirkus Reviews called it "A super sharp mystery, more a puzzle than a novel, but endowed with a vivid and extensive cast... If Raskin's crazy ingenuity has threatened to run away with her on previous occasions, here the complicated game is always perfectly meshed with character and story. Confoundingly clever, and very funny."[6] In a retrospective essay about the Newbery Medal-winning books from 1976 to 1985, literary critic Zena Sutherland wrote of The Westing Game, "Still a popular book with the group of readers who are mystery or puzzle fans, in retrospect this seems more entertaining than distinguished. Its choice as a Medal book underscores the problematic question: Can a distinguished book also be a popular book?"[7] References[edit]
External links[edit]
How is Grace Wexler related to Sam Westing in The Westing Game?Grace Wexler believed that she was somehow related to Samuel Westing. She is right about this. She was chosen as one of his 16 heirs because she is his niece. In Chapter 24, the reader learns that Samuel Westing's original surname was Windkloppel, which is also Grace's maiden name.
How old is Grace Wexler in The Westing Game?Gracie Windsor Wexler, married to Jake Wexler and mother of Angela and Turtle, is a self-centered woman who is obsessed with her own image. She is 42 years old.
Is Grace Wexler Violet Westing?Grace Windsor Wexler is Violet Westing. Think about it: Grace is 42 during the events of the story. Violet supposedly died twenty years before the events of the story, and she was in her twenties at the time, thus making her about the same age as Grace.
Who is the Wexler family in The Westing Game?The Wexler Family in The Westing Game:
Jake and Grace Wexler have two daughters, Turtle and Angela.
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