This book is unusual because there are four stories inside, being told at once, but there is one continuous storyline that joins all four of them together. Two of the stories don’t have many words, but if you pay close attention to the pictures, the connection to the other stories becomes obvious. The title of the book is also kind of a hint, although those colors apply to more than one aspect of the overall story.
The picture at the right is from the title page, and the title page has the message that explains the concepts behind the stories. One of the fun things about this book is reading it multiple times. You can read the stories and look at the pictures of all four stories as you go through the book the first time, but if you look at each story in isolation, you can experience the continuity of each thread of the bigger stories and notice additional details.
The four stories are:
Seeing Things — A young boy takes a train trip by himself, going home to his parents. He sleeps through most of his long journey, but during the night, he wakes up to some strange happenings.
A Waiting Game — A group of commuters waiting for their train, which has been unexpectedly delayed, find amusing ways to entertain themselves.
Problem Parents — A girl and her brother are convinced that their parents are crazy when they arrive home from their offices in the city wearing weird outfits made of newspapers and singing.
Udder Chaos — An escaped convict hides among a herd of cows.
You might be able to get some of the connections between these stories from what I’ve said and the pictures I’ve shown, but it gets funnier if you keep going through the stories, seeing where each of them lines up with the others.
The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.
It all starts when a mysterious person invites six sets of people to live in the new apartment building, Sunset Towers. Sunset Towers is a luxury apartment building, but the rent for these individuals and families is surprisingly affordable. That is because these people are special, and the owner of these apartments is preparing for a very special game. Although there doesn’t seem to be anything to tie these people together at first, they do share a special connection that isn’t immediately obvious, a connection to the wealthy but mysterious Samuel Westing.
Among the new tenants of Sunset Towers is young Turtle Wexler. Although she is often in the shadow of her overly-shy but pretty older sister, Angela, she has ambitions of her own in life. While her mother dreams of making it in high society, Turtle (whose real name is also something of a mystery to the other tenants for most of the book) wants to become a successful businesswoman when she grows up, and one of the things she wants most is a subscription to the Wall Street Journal. To raise the money she needs, Turtle accepts a bet to sneak into the supposedly empty Westing House on Halloween night, earning $2 for every minute she spends there. There are stories that the place is haunted and that Mr. Westing’s body lies rotting on an oriental rug there, but Turtle doesn’t believe them. As it turns out, she’s right. Instead, she finds Mr. Westing dead in bed.
To everyone’s surprise, the tenants of Sunset Towers are all named in the will, but not in an ordinary way. In order to determine who the final heir will be, they must all play The Westing Game. The heirs are divided up into teams of two and given $10,000 and a set of clues. They must use these to give an answer at the end. But, what kind of an answer? Mr. Westing’s will implies that he was murdered, but is that really true? Could his murderer even be among the heirs/game players?
As the book continues, readers learn more about each of the contestants. Each of them has their own personalities, ambitions, and problems. For example, Angela Wexler is about to be married but seems less than enthusiastic about the wedding. Cristos Theodorakis suffers from a strange malady that keeps him confined to a wheelchair. Sydelle Pulaski was actually invited to join the tenants by mistake, but it might be the best mistake of her life. Mr. Hoo is worried about his restaurant, and Madame Hoo dreams of returning to China.
The competition is fierce in the Westing Game. Players are suspicious of other players cheating. Things around the apartments start disappearing, and some mysterious person has even started planting explosives in unlikely places! Whether the thefts and explosions have anything to do with the contest itself is for the reader to discover, but there is an answer to the Westing Game, and only one of the contestants will discover it.
The book is a Newbery Award winner. There is a movie version of the book called Get a Clue! (1997), although it doesn’t follow the book completely. There are multiple copies of the book currently available online through Internet Archive.
My Reaction
One of the great things about the Westing Game is how the seemingly mismatched pairs of contestants actually complement each other, giving people new perspectives on their lives and the answers to problems that some of them have been struggling with. Lonely Flora Baumbach, grieving for her deceased daughter, is paired with young Turtle, who finds in her a more motherly person than her own mother, someone who values her for her intelligence and her unique skills in a way that no one else does. Mrs. Baumbach enjoys having someone to care for again, and Turtle blossoms under her care and attention. Mr. Hoo, meanwhile, finds some unexpected support for his business from Mrs. Wexler, who develops broader interests in life than her previous social ambitions and an unexpected flair for business and marketing. Judge Ford, who was educated by Mr. Westing and always worried about how to repay the debt, finally finds a way to repay his kindness, a way that Mr. Westing would have approved. Bertha Crow, an unhappy woman who turned to religion to atone for past sins, finds new happiness with someone who understands and accepts her past and is willing to help her continue her good works. Even Angela, who seems to have everything a young girl would want (good looks and a kind fiance with a promising future in medicine), figures out what she really wants in life and finds the courage to stand up for it.
The Roberts kids must solve another family treasure hunt! This time, they are staying with their grandparents at the family’s vacation home on Pirate Island. It has been many years since the family has been able to go there during the summer. For years, they rented the house out to a couple who lived there most of the time, and the grandparents could only go there when the couple left to visit relatives at Christmas. Now, the house is vacant again, and the grandparents have decided to take the Liza, Bill, and Jed there for the summer.
The last time that their grandfather spent the summer there as a child, his older brother decided to take something from every member of the family and make a treasure hunt just like the old family treasure hunt that the kids solved in Key to the Treasure. Just like that treasure hunt, other circumstances arose that kept the treasure hunt from being solved, so no one ever got back what grandfather’s brother hid. The only clue they have to the treasure now is a picture that grandfather’s brother drew. Since the children were able to solve the last treasure hunt, their grandfather is hopeful that they will be able to solve this one, too.
Unlike other treasure hunts that the Roberts kids solve, this treasure hunt does not involve codes and word games. The clues are given in the form of drawings, most of which (unfortunately) are not shown to the readers. The readers wouldn’t have a chance to solve the puzzles anyway because the objects in the drawings are things which the children’s grandfather has to recognize, places where he and his brother went as kids. This book also introduces Hermit Dan, who appears in another book.
The Roberts family is moving to a different house across town because they want a bigger place to live. Liza, Bill, and Jed are not very happy about moving, at least at first, because they will be farther away from their friends, especially Jimmy and Mary, who have been their best friends and next door neighbors. Liza is also worried because the house they will be living in is the old Blake house, which is rumored to be haunted. A couple of past caretakers have left because they claimed to hear ghostly noises. The boys tease her about it, and their father insists that there is no such thing as ghosts.
The house is definitely much bigger than their old one, and there is a barn, a garden, and a large wooded area on the property. When they actually move in, the kids become fascinated with the old things in the attic, which the children are allowed to go through. The kids also plan to start building a tree house. The boys become excited about the house, but Liza is still nervous about the ghost stories.
Then, strange notes and coded messages appear for the children, starting with a note taped to Liza’s window in the middle of the night. Little presents are left for them in a hollow tree with promises of bigger surprises later. Who is sending these messages? Could it be the ghost?
Like other books in this series, there are coded messages and word games that the readers can solve alongside the children. Some of them are easily recognizable, like word scrambles and Pig Latin, and others are a little harder. The kids walk readers through their solutions, but readers can attempt the puzzles on their own first.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.
When twins Liza and Bill and their older brother Jed visit their grandparents for the summer, their grandfather tells them the story of a treasure hidden somewhere on their farm. Over a hundred years ago, their great-great-grandfather was friends with an Indian (Native American) woman. When she died, she left her belongings to him, including a feathered bonnet, a leather shield, a mask, and a doll.
When he grew up, he went away to fight in the Civil War. Before he left, he hid three of the items (the shield, the mask, and the doll) and made up a series of clues to help his children find them. Unfortunately, the first clue was lost, and he never returned to tell his children where he hid the treasure. The only clue that was left was a picture of the feathered bonnet, a little pot, and a strange-looking key. From then on, each generation in their family has tried to solve the puzzle. Since so many generations of their family have failed to find the treasure, Liza, Bill, and Jed don’t have much hope for success until they accidentally stumble on something that gives them their first clue.
Together, the three children quietly work on the clues, following each to the next. They hope to surprise their grandfather with the solution to this old family mystery. But, can they?
The clues to the treasure take the form of word games and codes (the first is a simple substitution code, and the other two are word games). Young readers will find it challenging to solve the codes along with the children in the book (Liza, Bill, and Jed walk readers through their solutions as they work on the puzzle, even showing how they correct for mistakes along the way), although older readers may find them rather easy. It’s a good book for introducing children to codes and word games if they haven’t really encountered them before. For the challenge of it, you can stop reading at each new puzzle and attempt to solve it before the kids do!
Pirate Island Adventure by Peggy Parish, 1975.
The Haunted House by Peggy Parish, 1971.
Key to the Treasure by Peggy Parish, 1966.
Together, the three children quietly work on the clues, following each to the next. They hope to surprise their grandfather with the solution to this old family mystery. But, can they?
Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories 