I thought of the lavishly rich visual details of the poem, and I longed to see how she would illustrate it. So she did do it—her first book for Dutton. One of her exquisitely intricate paintings for that book now hangs on my wall. We often talked about our lives, and I particularly loved stories about her family and how she and her parents and sister drove around the country during the Great Depression so her father could look for work, an epic safari that took them from Milwaukee to California.
And she did. But it was not exactly the semiautobiographical young-adult novel I had in mind. Instead, about a year later she showed up in my office with the manuscript of The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon I mean Noel.
I loved it. Or was it?? It was there, in her studio, that she wrote and illustrated what was to be her last book, The Westing Game. She said that if she knew what was going to happen in a book, she would be too bored to write it. The carrot for her was watching the plot unfold.
And, yes, she invented that incredibly complex plot of clues within clues as she went along. What a mind she had! Mine was really put to the test in trying to keep it all straight in order to double-check her.
She read only adult ones. She said that she wrote for the child in herself, but for once I think she was wrong. I think she wrote for the adult in children. But above all, she was brave. She loved the chutzpah of New Yorkers because she had it, too.
She rehearsed by singing it out loud on the subway, figuring that if she could sing it there, she could certainly perform it before a friendly audience of librarians. She could and did. As I said, Ellen and I were bonded friends. As my friend, she told me about the illness that was the true test of her bravery. It was a disease of the connective tissues that caused her great pain. When it was in remission, she was full of energy and went full tilt—working on her many interests, including a huge vegetable garden at their cottage on the Long Island shore.
But gradually the periods of remission grew shorter and shorter, and the disease claimed her life in , when she was Ellen, forgive me for telling your age only fifty-six.
Dennis held a memorial service in the studio under the skylight. I still cannot hear that music without a stab of pain. I know how glad she would be that The Westing Game has already had twenty-five good years in print, and is about to be introduced to a new generation of readers.
Readers, you are in for a treat. Get your wits about you. Close reading activities throughout the literature units encourages students to use textual evidence as they revisit passages to respond more critically about the text. Support the rich exploration of literature in today's classrooms with this resource.
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance. 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. Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Read Online Download. Great book, The Westing Game pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:.
Sleep No More by Aprilynne Pike.
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