The Westing Game - Literature Kit Gr. 7-8


Book Description

Unravel the secrets at the center of an intriguing murder mystery game. Activities are meant to excite students throughout the reading. Using the chapter titles as clues, predict what might happen in each one. Identify elements of foreshadowing from the novel, and imagine what will take place. Follow the clues in the story to solve the game before any of the characters. Identify cause and effect by explaining why each event happened. Keep track of the variety of characters with comprehension questions. Students will write their own prologue and epilogue at the completion of the reading. Compare two different character's perspectives of the same event from the novel. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: The Westing Game is a Newbery Medal winning story about a group of people playing the game of who killed the millionaire. Samuel W. Westing, owner of Westing Paper Products, has died. Sixteen heirs are invited to live in the Sunset Towers apartment building. These heirs come together to read the will of the late self-made millionaire. The will challenges them to solve the murder of Sam Westing by splitting up into eight pairs. Each pair is given a set of clues and $10,000 dollars to play the game. The winner will inherit the $200,000,000 fortune and unravel the secret behind the old man's death.




The Westing Game


Book Description

BE CLASSIC with The Westing Game, introduced by New York Times bestselling author Mac Barnett. A highly inventive mystery begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of the very stranger will of the very read Samuel W. Westing. They could become millionaires, depending on how they play a game. All they have to do is find the answer - but the answer to what? The Westing game is tricky and dangerous, but the heirs play on - through blizzards, burglaries, and bombings, Sam Westing may be dead ... but that won't stop him from playing one last game! Winner of the Newbery Medal Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award An ALA Notable Book A School Library Journal One Hundred Books That Shaped the Century "A supersharp mystery...confoundingly clever, and very funny." —Booklist, starred review "Great fun for those who enjoy illusion, word play, or sleight of hand." —The New York Times Book Review "A fascinating medley of word games, disguises, multiple aliases, and subterfuges—a demanding but rewarding book." —The Horn Book




Figgs & Phantoms


Book Description

From the Newbery Award-winning author of THE WESTING GAME, more clever riddles and wordplay, clues to be found, and mysteries to be solved! A Newbery Honor book The Amazing Dancing Figgs! While Mona hates all the attention her eccentric relatives bring to her in town, there is one Figg family member she likes: her Uncle Florence, the book dealer. But Uncle Florence keeps hinting that he's going to find his way to Capri, the Figg family heaven. And that means leaving Mona behind. Can Mona find Capri before it's too late, or will she learn that things are seldom what they seem when books are involved?




The Westing Game


Book Description

A Newbery Medal Winner For over thirty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery Medal-winning The Westing Game has been an enduring favorite. The Westing Game Deluxe Anniversary Edition Before writing The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin was an incredibly accomplished graphic artist, designing dozens of books, including the cover for the first edition of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. While writing The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin also thought about the design and layout, and ultimately the way in which it contributes to the reading experience of the story. This deluxe anniversary edition honors her original design work and displays bonus content showing the behind the scenes work of designing a book Ellen Raskin-style. Winner of the Newbery Medal Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award An ALA Notable Book A School Library Journal One Hundred Books That Shaped the Century "A supersharp mystery...confoundingly clever, and very funny." —Booklist, starred review "Great fun for those who enjoy illusion, word play, or sleight of hand." —The New York Times Book Review "A fascinating medley of word games, disguises, multiple aliases, and subterfuges—a demanding but rewarding book." —The Horn Book




The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues


Book Description

From the Newbery Award-winning author of THE WESTING GAME, more clever riddles and wordplay, clues to be found, and mysteries to be solved! Wanted: Assistant to a painter (and a secret sleuth) Dickory Dock has come to 12 Cobble Lane to take the job as painter's assistant to the artist Garson. The townhouse looks charming and quaint, but inside its redbrick walls lurk suspicious characters, multiple mysteries, and one very eccentric portrait artist. Clues abound; and suddenly Dickory finds herself assisting Garson not in art but in crime solving. Can Dickory untangle the web of mysteries within mysteries and discover the true secret hiding on Cobble Lane?




The Egypt Game


Book Description

The first time Melanie Ross meets April Hall, she’s not sure they have anything in common. But she soon discovers that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt. When they stumble upon a deserted storage yard, Melanie and April decide it’s the perfect spot for the Egypt Game. Before long there are six Egyptians, and they all meet to wear costumes, hold ceremonies, and work on their secret code. Everyone thinks it’s just a game until strange things start happening. Has the Egypt Game gone too far?




The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)


Book Description

From the Newbery Award-winning author of THE WESTING GAME, more clever riddles and wordplay, clues to be found, and mysteries to be solved! Glub! Blub! Mrs. Caroline "Little Dumpling" Carillon isn't quite sure what to expect when she sets off to meet her husband, Leon. After all, she hasn't seen him since their wedding when she was five and he was seven. But their reunion is cut short when a storm knocks him off their boat, and he disappears completely, leaving only one very waterlogged clue (Glub! Blub!). Will Dumpling be able to find Leon (or is it Noel) again? And just what is a glub blub?




The Great Greene Heist


Book Description

Saving the school -- one con at a time. "A political heist page-turner set in middle school? Is that even possible? Varian Johnson shows us how it's done." - Gordon Korman, author of SWINDLE "Do yourself a favor and start reading immediately." - Rebecca Stead, author of WHEN YOU REACH ME Jackson Greene swears he's given up scheming. Then school bully Keith Sinclair announces he's running for Student Council president, against Jackson's former friend Gaby de la Cruz. Gaby wants Jackson to stay out of it -- but he knows Keith has "connections" to the principal, which could win him the presidency no matter the vote count. So Jackson assembles a crack team: Hashemi Larijani, tech genius. Victor Cho, bankroll. Megan Feldman, science goddess. Charlie de la Cruz, reporter. Together they devise a plan that will take down Keith, win Gaby's respect, and make sure the election is done right. If they can pull it off, it will be remembered as the school's greatest con ever -- one worthy of the name THE GREAT GREENE HEIST.




The Shadow Cipher


Book Description

It was 1798 when the Morningstarr twins arrived in New York with a vision for a magnificent city: towering skyscrapers, dazzling machines, and winding train lines, all running on technology no one had ever seen before. Fifty-seven years later, the enigmatic architects disappeared, leaving behind for the people of New York the Old York Cipher--a puzzle laid into the shining city they constructed, at the end of which was promised a treasure beyond all imagining. By the present day, however, the puzzle has never been solved, and the greatest mystery of the modern world is little more than a tourist attraction. Tess and Theo Biedermann and their friend Jaime Cruz live in a Morningstarr apartment--until a real estate developer announces that the city has agreed to sell him the five remaining Morningstarr buildings. Their likely destruction means the end of a dream long held by the people of New York. And if Tess, Theo, and Jaime want to save their home, they have to prove that the Old York Cipher is real. Which means they have to solve it.




The Crossover: An Instructional Guide for Literature


Book Description

The Crossover: An Instructional Guide for Literature provides lesson plans and activities for this award-winning literary work. This valuable resource helps teachers add more rigor to their instruction with complex literature. Text-dependent questions help students analyze the text with higher-order thinking skills, with lessons focused on story elements, vocabulary, and more. Close reading activities throughout the literature units encourage students to use textual evidence as they revisit passages to respond more critically about the text. With various methods of assessing comprehension, this instructional guide offers strategies for cross-curricular activities as students build a greater understanding of this great literary work.