i sub for a teacher that is the advisor for "battle of the books", a competition held by the kern county school district. for "battle of the books", students read books all year and then are tested on them at the competition. it sounds amazing to me and i wish that it was around when i was in elementary school. i came across the westing game in their pile of books to be read. i had never heard of it before but the premise sounded interesting, heirs compete to win a fortune. in fact, as i read it, i thought it sounded like the premise for a reality tv show. i am shocked no one has turned it into one. it would be one of these fake reality shows where everyone is an actor except one person and the storyline follows the book. maybe the produce would give the participant a required reading list with the westing game on it and see if s/he puts two and two together.
back to the novel, the westing game is also a newbery medal winner and this was my motivation to finally pick it up.
the westing game definitely kept me on my toes. i assumed since it is a children's book, i would be able to read between the lines and figure it out but in fact i was not that good. i knew that "america the beautiful" held the secret to the mystery but i was too lazy to actually do the leg work. i had assumed that the real clues were what were missing too but again didn't try to sort it out. i did pick up on some of the foreshadowing, the look-a-likes and weird notes but again didn't put in a deep analysis to try to figure it all out before turtle did.
i loved all of the odd and eccentric characters. turtle of course being my favorite, even though she kicked shins. i also loved how her nickname even ended up being a clue. (i don't want to give much away just in case some of you haven't read it.)
again without giving anything away, i loved everyone happily ever after endings!!!
all in all, an enjoyable book and one i would have definitely loved as a kid.
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