Ellen Raskin‘s 1978 book The Westing Game was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1979. This mystery within a mystery has been a beloved favorite of mine since I first read it in the fifth or sixth grade, back in the mid-nineties.
Cover lovingly found on Wikipedia. Also, my favorite cover of the lot.
I recently reread the novel, and while I am not as clever as the sixth-grade class I heard about (a sub told me of a sixth-grade class that was solving the mystery by analyzing the clues. Apparantly, it was amazing. I need to visit that classroom), it was still enjoyable. However, I noted several things that could cause frustration.
First off: terminology. Our society has become a lot more politically-correct in the past thirty years, and while I was born several years after publication, I had no idea what “Mongoloid” meant. No idea. I asked my father, who had to pause, think for a minute, before he explained that Mongoloid was a term for a person with Down’s Syndrome. In 1978, not an offensive term. In 2009 … heck yeah.
Second: I forgot what the second was.
Conclusion of this post (can anyone tell I’m exhausted? anyone? Bueller?): While the classroom teacher or parent or librarian might have to explain a few words here and there, The Westing Game is a delightful read, and exercises the gray matter.
