9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Still my favorite after 15 years
Date of Review: Mar 29, 2000
I've read The Westing Game about seven times since I first fell in love with it in the fifth grade. Each time I read it, I enjoy it for a different reason. At first it was the fun characters with appropriate names, like the future Angela Deere, the angelic child who can do no wrong in the eyes of her pretentious mother. Then it was the puzzle of The Game itself. Now I'm amazed at how Ellen Raskin could create so many characters and do it so well that I feel as if I would know them if I met them on the street (or in Sunset Towers).
Like The Chronicles of Narnia, this book can be enjoyed at any age. As a kid, the last few chapters bored me. I didn't care what happened to the characters five or ten years down the road. Now, I love the ending. I only wish real life fell together so neatly. And I still learn from this book. The last time I read it (last month), I was reminded not to stereotype people when I first meet them, since life is like The Westing Game in that not everyone is exactly who or what they seem to be.
Incidentally, my sister recently heard Louis Sachar (the author of Holes) speak at a conference. The man who introduced him said that Holes was "the best Newberry award winner since The Westing Game." Even after 20 years, The Westing Game has kept its reputation as the best of the best.
