The Westing Game
Author: Ellen Raskin
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction/Mystery
Plot: The new residents of Sunset Towers try to unravel the mystery of Samuel Westing
Verdict: Great mystery
My rating: 4 stars
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Author: Katherine Paterson
Genre: Conteomporary Realistic Fiction
Plot: Gilly Hopkins moves into her new foster home determined to make trouble.
Verdict: I hated the ending
My rating: 2 stars
Both of the books from this year often appear on middle grade reading lists.
The Westing Game is an awesome junior fiction mystery. There are clues all over the place and in the classroom where they were reading this, the kids had to keep track of the clues to try to figure out what was going on.
Katherine Paterson has three books on the Newbery list, and is one of the few authors to have won the medal twice. I have to admit I was disappointed by The Great Gilly Hopkins after reading Jacob Have I Loved and Bridge to Terebithia. Terebithia has a pretty sad ending but the ending of Gilly Hopkins ruined the whole book for me. It has also landed itself on the challenged list because of Gilly's use of profanity and the card that she sends to her African American teacher.
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