CGHS Library

The Westing Game (FIC Raskin)

“Life, too, is senseless unless you know who you are, what you want, and which way the wind blows.”

If you like Greenglass House (FIC Milford) or Mr. Lemoncello's Library (FIC Grabenstein), you might like The Westing Game. Raskin writes like those drone videos where parts of the footage are in fast motion and parts are slowed down for emphasis. Bottom line is that when the main character is called Turtle, I know that the book is pretty much going to be a slam dunk for me. (MHouse) 

2019 William Allen White Award Winner

My dad used to eat sunflower seeds too. That's where I get it from. But he used to chew the whole thing up. The shells, the seeds, everything. Just devour them like some kind of beast. When I was really young, I used to ask him if a sunflower was going to grow inside of him since he ate the seeds so much. He was always watching some kind of game, like football or basketball, and he'd turn to me just for a second, just long enough to not miss a play, and say, "Sunflowers are all up in me, kid." Then he'd shake up the seeds in his palm like dice, before throwing another bunch in his grill to chomp down on.

But let me tell you, my dad was lying. Wasn't no sunflowers growing in him. Couldn't have been. I don't know a whole lot about sunflowers, but I know they're pretty and girls like them, and I know the word sunflower is made up of two good words, and that man ain't got two good words in him, or anything that any girl would like, because girls don't like men who try to shoot them and their son. And that's the kind of man he was. (page 4)