99 pages • 3 hours read
Ellen RaskinThe Westing Game
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1978A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Introduction
The Westing Game
- Genre: Fiction; middle grade mystery
- Originally Published: 1978
- Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 750L; grades 5-7
- Structure/Length: 30 chapters; approx. 216 pages; approx. 6 hours, 59 minutes on audio
- Protagonist/Central Conflict: Sixteen people living in the Sunset Towers apartment building gather for the reading of Samuel Westing’s will. They have been named heirs, but the will is structured like a puzzle, and the winner gets his entire fortune.
- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Death, suicide, racism, violence
Ellen Raskin, Author
- Bio: 1928-1984; American children’s writer and illustrator; grew up during the Great Depression; majored in fine art at University of Wisconsin-Madison; worked as a commercial artist in New York City for 15 years; designed over 1000 dust jackets for books, including one for the first edition of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- Other Works: The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) (1971); Figgs & Phantoms (1974); The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues (1975)
- Awards: Newbery Medal (1979); Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Fiction (1978); ALA Notable Children’s Book (1978); Library of Congress Children’s Book (1978)
CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:
- Appearances as (Non)indication of the Self
- Greed and Charity as Motivators
- The Use of Rationality to Explain an Irrational World
STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:
