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Summary: Sam Westing always gets what he wants...
Review: This is a great book of mystery and suspense. It is about a man(Sam Westing)who has supposedly died, and his sixteen heirs. Now, knowing that, you probably think that this is a boring and morbid book. Well, it's not. It's the exact opposite of that, and the minute you start reading you see why The Westing Game got a Newberry Medal Award. The rest of the plot revolves around the sixteens heirs' adventures in Sunset Apartments, to which they are all somehow or another connected. The characters are a Chinese restaurant owner and his wife, their track star/son, a dressmaker, a Greek disabilitated boy and his family of a brother and parents, a secretary, a cleaning woman, a 60 year-old delivery boy, an intern in a hospital, Sandy(I forget what its called that he does), and a shin-kicking middle-schooler whose mother is a decorator, her father is a doctor, and her sister is going to marry the intern. Whew! The spread of charcters gives you a sense that this could really happen, but at the same time you know it couldn't(or at least you think you know). You probably also noticed that there are more than sixteen heirs. That's because the Greek mother and father are not heirs. This makes for a really interesting book that you would really like.
Rating:
Summary: A "please mom, can i just read one more page" book
Review: Would you play a game to win $ 200,000,000? The characters in Ellen RaskinŽÂ¢ÂµÃ— book, The Westing Game (winner of the Newberry medal) would. This book is extremely suspenseful and it is intriguing because it has different main characters. Barney Northrup shows eighteen people an apartment at Sunnset Towers. each one rents the apartment, but one of the eighteen is a mistake. There are sixteen people who soon after are invited to hear Sam Westing's will at the Old Westing Mansion and are drawn into a game, the Westing Game. They are paired off and each pair receives certain clues. These clues are to help them compete against the cunning Samuel Westing. All the heirs begin to buy Westing Paper products. Can they solve the tangled mystery and win the inheritance before the deadline? Is one of them smart enough to outwit the cunning Samuel Westing? Read and find out. Oh, and remember nothing is what it seems to be. This book is extremely suspenseful due to the fact of constant action. Someone is planting bombs around Sunset Towers. One of the heir's shorthand notes has been stolen. Another heir is running around scaring the other heirs by shouting "Boom!". Two of the heirs are engaged, waiting to be married. Then there are the meetings at Samuel Westing's house, something always happens while the heirs are there. This book is also a pleasurable book because it features more than one main character. In fact it has sixteen main characters. This makes the book more intriguing because the reader isn't always reading just one person's opinions. There is Angela Wexler, a perfect and beautiful bride-to-be, and Turtle Wexler, her thirteen- year- old shin- kicking sister. There is their stuck up mom, Grace Wexler and Mr.Wexler, the kind doctor. There is Doctor Denton Deere, Angela's fiance. Otis Amber, the sixty-two year old delivery boy; a cleaning woman named Berthe Crow; and a woman named Flora Baumabach who lost her daughter and husband. There is the grouchy Mr.Hoo, who owns a Chinese restaurant on the fifth floor of Sunset Towers, his Chinese wife, Mrs.Hoo, and Doug Hoo the highschool trackstar. There is the doorman, Sandy McSouthers. There is the famous Judge Ford, and a lonely woman named Sydelle Pulaski, and Chris and Theo Theodorakis the sons of the coffee shop owner. The author makes it so a reader can follow each of the heir's thoughts without becoming confused. That means one might be able to see something in a different light. And don't worry! There really are only about eighteen people throughout the book. So if you can handle Harry Potter you can handle The Westing Game. Someone might not like this book because it takes a little while for it to get started. For about the first two chapters the characters are mostly moving and settling into Sunset Towers. The two chapters are also kind of long. But never fear! This isn't a very big drawback. Go ahead and order or read this book. Once you finish those two chapters, the book will be so thrilling;you be able to put it down. If you don't read this book for any reason, then you're missing something BIG! P.S. To all night readers this book is a "Please Mommmm, can I read just one more chapter?" "No!" "Then can I read one more page?" So my advice to you is you might want to get started a little while before bedtime.
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