![]() American Writers for Children Since 1960: Fiction put her life this way. Sadly, The Westing Game would be the last children’s novel Raskin would ever write. Indeed, it’s probably their only encounter with it. There is no other American children’s novel out there that has so effectively gotten kids interested in the stock market. She was very proud that she was once asked to manage a mutual fund but felt it would take too much time.” I bet. She maintained a portfolio of stocks and played the market successfully. “Raskin was certainly Turtle Wexler, and The Westing Game as a tribute to capitalism is not surprising because she was a capitalist herself. If she was any character in the book, it’s easy to guess which one. Proof positive that working titles sometimes bite. Raskin said, though, that as she wrote, ‘My tribute to American labor history ended up a comedy in praise of capitalism.’ It was a true Bicentennial book.” Also, the working title was Eight Imperfect Pairs of Heirs. Wisconsin had a history of labor disputes (perhaps she remembered the career of her Grandfather Raskin, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World who was murdered at age thirty-four), so she chose to write about a slain industrialist. She intended the book to have a historical background and set it on the shores of Lake Michigan, where she grew up. The death of Howard Hughes was much in the news at the time, which inspired the strange will and multiple heirs. And one of them won!” Oddly cheery recap, that.Īmerican Writers for Children Since 1960: Fiction says that the book came about in this way: “It was begun in 1976, the Bicentennial year, which prompted the use of the words of ‘America the Beautiful’ as clues. All they had to do was find the answer, but the answer to what? The Westing game was tricky and dangerous, but the heirs played on, through blizzards and burlaries and bombs bursting in the air. The not-quite-perfect heirs were paired, and each pair was given $10,000 and a set of clues (no two sets of clues were alike). They could become millionaires, depending on how they played the game. The plot description from the book reads, “Sixteen people were invited to the reading of the very strange will of the very rich Samuel W. Of course, according to Anita Silvey, “she had always hoped to win a Caldecott Medal for illustration.” Instead she got a Newbery. Not too surprising that L’Engle’s would have crossed her plate. Raskin originally intended to be a freelance commercial artist anyway, and she did about a thousand book jackets in her day. The answer? Ellen Raskin illustrated the original cover for Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time then later would go on to win a Newbery for The Westing Game. Couldn’t for the life of me figure it out. “What is the only Newbery winning jacket illustrated by someone who would later go on to win their own Newbery?” I was stumped. I correctly answered his question about Evaline Ness, but then he asked a question that just baffled me. I was once at a Books of Wonder Christmas party when Peter Glassman started popping some children’s literature trivia at me. Oh, Ellen, why did you die so young? – Susan Van Metre I do wish that David Lynch would make this into a movie. Raskin also managed to do the “what-happened-in-the-future” part of it right (unlike some awful epilogues of late). ![]() Turtle, while incredibly unlikeable, is loveable just the same, and the quirky characters have just the right amount of strange. It stands the test of time, and I give it to kids every year. It seems smarter and funnier, and altogether more perfect every time I reread it. ![]() #9 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (1978)
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