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The Westing Game · Garden Heights
Part 1
for The Westing Game · Part 1 · Chapters 1–4
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 1
A brand-new apartment building called Sunset Towers rises on the Lake Michigan shore — facing east, away from any sunset — and a salesman named Barney Northrup, who does not exist, fills it by sending just six letters to six chosen households: the Wexlers, the Theodorakis family, the Hoos, dressmaker Flora Baumbach, secretary Sydelle Pulaski, and Judge J.J. Ford. On Halloween, smoke rises from the chimney of the Westing mansion, vacant for fifteen years, and delivery boy Otis Amber retells the story of two kids who entered on a dare — one off the cliff, one into an asylum. Turtle Wexler takes a bet of two dollars a minute to stay inside the house, while from his window Chris Theodorakis watches a limping figure slip through a side door. Following a faint whisper upstairs, Turtle finds Sam Westing dead in a four-poster bed — and flees screaming into the night. The next morning’s paper announces the death but never says who found the body, or mentions the note Turtle glimpsed beside the bed.
An all-knowing narrator, planted foreshadowing, and quick-stroke characterization
Cross-Curricular
Leases, landlords, and tenants — how renting a home really works
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
1
Sunset Towers — on the Fourth of July a strange 62-year-old deliveryman carries six letters signed by Barney Northrup, a salesman who does not exist. The letters invite six chosen families to a gleaming new building on the Lake Michigan shore that faces east despite its name — and every family signs, though one apartment, we are told, goes to the wrong tenant.
2
Ghosts or Worse — the tenants move in on September first, with a bookie, a burglar, a bomber, a thief, and one mistake hidden somewhere among them. On Halloween, smoke rises from the Westing mansion after fifteen empty years; Otis Amber retells the tale of two kids who entered on a dare — one off the cliff, one into an asylum — and Chris Theodorakis, watching from his window, sees a limping figure slip through a side door.
3
Tenants In and Out — news of the smoke runs through the building: past Angela’s wedding-dress fitting with Flora Baumbach, through Jake Wexler’s office where grim-faced Crow mentions it, into the Hoos’ apartment, and up to Judge Ford’s door, where the judge insists there must be a reasonable explanation. Chris tries to report the limping figure, but the words will not come.
4
The Corpse Found — the bet is struck: two dollars for every minute Turtle stays inside the Westing house, with fast-footed Doug Hoo as timekeeper. Turtle follows a faint whisper upstairs and finds Sam Westing dead in a four-poster bed; she flees screaming, and the next morning’s obituary never says who found the body — or mentions the note she glimpsed beside it.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 1–4, then answer each question.
📚Knowledge Bank · The Words of Renting a Home
Economics & Housing · Rental TermsPart 1 is built around an apartment building, and buildings come with their own quiet vocabulary. The person who owns a building is the landlord; the person who pays to live in it is the tenant. What connects them is a signed agreement called a lease, which sets the monthly rent, how long the tenant may stay, and the rules both sides promise to follow. Most owners also collect a deposit — money held aside in case the tenant damages the rooms or leaves without paying. Notice what all these words assume: strangers find a building, apply to live there, and the owner says yes or no. Sunset Towers reverses every step. Nobody applied. Six letters went out, each aimed at one particular family, and a salesman who does not exist talked each family into signing. When a landlord wants specific tenants badly enough to invite them by name, a sharp reader should ask what the owner is really collecting.
tenantn.Ch.1
A person who pays rent to live in a building someone else owns
“Every tenant in the new building had been chosen by name.”
vacantadj.Ch.2
Empty; not lived in or used
“The old house on the hill had stood vacant for fifteen years.”
estaten.Ch.2
A large property with grounds; also, everything a person owns
“A wire fence closed off the Westing estate from its neighbors.”
corpsen.Ch.4
A dead body
“The rumor said a corpse lay upstairs on a fancy rug.”
rumorn.Ch.2
A story passed from person to person without proof
“Each rumor about the old man grew wilder than the last.”
daren.Ch.2
A challenge to do something risky to prove courage
“Two kids once went inside on a dare, or so the story ran.”
obituaryn.Ch.4
A newspaper notice reporting and describing a person’s death
“The obituary left out exactly what Turtle wanted to read.”
luxuryn.Ch.1
Comfort that is expensive and beyond what is necessary
“Barney Northrup sold the apartments as pure luxury.”
persuadev.Ch.1
To talk someone into doing or believing something
“A good salesman can persuade six strangers to sign at once.”
mansionn.Ch.2
A very large and impressive house
“Smoke curled from the chimney of the empty mansion.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
1A person who pays rent to live in a building someone else owns is a ___.Ch.1
2A dead body is a ___.Ch.4
3A ‘vacant’ building is one that is full of busy people.Ch.2
4A story passed from person to person without proof is a ___.Ch.2
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.1–2
Word choices:tenantvacantestaterumor- some words will not be used
Every in the new building had been chosen by name.
A wire fence closed off the Westing from its neighbors.
6To ‘persuade’ someone is to talk them into doing something.Ch.1
7A newspaper notice reporting a person’s death is an ___.Ch.4
8A ‘mansion’ is a very large and impressive house.Ch.2
9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.1–4
Word choices:corpsedareluxuryobituary- some words will not be used
The rumor said a lay upstairs on a fancy rug.
Barney Northrup sold the apartments as pure .
10Comfort that is expensive and beyond what is necessary is ___.Ch.1
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 1–4.
📋Knowledge Bank · Six Letters, Six Chosen Tenants
Civics & Economics · How Renting Normally WorksIn the ordinary world, an apartment hunt runs in one direction. A renter sees an advertisement, tours the rooms, and fills out an application listing jobs, income, and past addresses. The owner then does the choosing: checking references, comparing applicants, and accepting whoever seems most likely to pay on time. This checking is called screening, and the law limits it — in the United States, fair-housing law forbids turning renters away because of race, religion, sex, disability, or family. Within those limits, though, a landlord holds real power, because an apartment is the owner’s property until a lease hands part of that control away. Now look at Chapter 1 again. At Sunset Towers no one advertises, no one applies, and no one is compared. The owner already knows exactly who belongs in each apartment, down to the medical office and the fifth-floor restaurant. That is not screening at all; it is casting.
1What is unusual about the letters that fill Sunset Towers with tenants?Ch.1
2Despite its name, Sunset Towers actually ___.Ch.1
3What do the watchers in the driveway notice at the Westing house on Halloween?Ch.2
4In Otis Amber’s story, what happened to the two kids who entered the house on a dare?Ch.2
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 1–4. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.1–4
Turtle takes a bet: two dollars for every minute she stays in the Westing house.
Six letters signed by Barney Northrup fill Sunset Towers with hand-picked tenants.
Inside the mansion, Turtle finds Sam Westing’s body in a four-poster bed.
The morning newspaper reports the death — without saying who found him.
From the driveway, kids and doormen watch smoke rise from the Westing chimney.
6Chris Theodorakis manages to tell the other tenants about the limping figure he saw enter the Westing house.Ch.2–3
7How does Grace Wexler treat her two daughters in Chapter 3?Ch.3
8Turtle earns the full amount she hoped to win from her bet inside the Westing house.Ch.4
9What does Turtle notice is missing from the newspaper’s report of Sam Westing’s death?Ch.4
10Doug Hoo is chosen as timekeeper for Turtle’s bet because he is a very fast runner.Ch.4
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Ellen Raskin tells the story across Chapters 1–4.
🧠Knowledge Bank · A Narrator Who Deals the Cards
Literary Craft · Omniscient NarrationMost mysteries hide behind one detective’s eyes. Raskin does the opposite. Her narrator is omniscient — able to enter any apartment and any mind — and spends the opening chapters moving through more than a dozen tenants, giving each a few sharp, memorable strokes: a girl who kicks shins, a dressmaker who smiles, a judge who trusts reason. This wide view lets Raskin plant foreshadowing in plain sight. We are told outright that one tenant is a mistake, that a bookie and a burglar and a bomber are hiding on the tenant list, yet we are never told which name goes with which label. The narrator, in other words, behaves like a card dealer: perfectly informed, perfectly fair, and perfectly silent about what matters most. Every fact you need is laid on the table, but each one is buried under cheerful misdirection. Reading this book well means treating every casual detail — a name, a limp, a chimney — as a possible clue.
Omniscient narrator
The storyteller floats above the whole cast, dipping into any apartment and any mind — and cheerfully tells us things no character knows, like the mistake in the rentals.
Foreshadowing
A hint of what is coming: one tenant is a mistake, one is a bookie, one is a bomber — promises the book must later keep, without a single name attached.
Characterization
Raskin sketches a dozen tenants in quick, sharp strokes — a shin-kicking girl, a smiling dressmaker, a judge who trusts reason — so we can tell the players apart before the game begins.
1The narrator of Chapters 1–4 is unusual because it ___.Ch.1–4
2Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.1–4
Word choices:omniscientforeshadowingdialoguesetting- some words will not be used
A narrator who can see into every mind is .
Warning that one tenant is a mistake is .
3Telling us that a bookie, a burglar, and a bomber live in the building — without naming them — mainly creates ___.Ch.2
4By the end of Chapter 4 the narrator has revealed who was rented the wrong apartment.Ch.1–4
5Because the story is told with humor, the discovery of the body is not important to the plot.Ch.4
6The name ‘Sunset Towers’ for a building that faces east works as ___.Ch.1
7Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.1–3
Word choices:characterizationflashbackrhymesetting- some words will not be used
Quick, sharp sketches of a dozen tenants are .
8Chapters 1–4 stay inside one apartment the whole time.Ch.1–4
9Raskin introduces the tenants in quick, labeled sketches mainly so that readers can ___.Ch.1–3
10Chapters 1–4 mainly work to ___.Ch.1–4
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
💡Knowledge Bank · What May an Owner Control?
Civics & Ethics · Property and FairnessOwning a building is not the same as ruling one. A landlord decides who signs a lease, what the rent will be, and what the rules say about pets, noise, or paint. Once the lease is signed, though, the law draws lines the owner cannot cross: the paid-for rooms become, in daily life, the tenant’s home, and the owner cannot wander in, spy, or force anyone out without cause and notice. Weighing a landlord’s behavior therefore means separating three questions: what the owner may control, what the tenant is owed, and what purpose the control serves. Barney Northrup’s rentals pass the first two tests — the rooms are real and the rent is fair — and fail the third spectacularly, because the choosing was never about housing at all. When someone with power follows every visible rule while aiming at a hidden goal, the rules stop protecting you. Fair judgment asks not only whether an act was legal, but what the act was for.
Think back over these chapters. A building appears on the shore of a lake, gleaming and new, its name promising sunsets its east-facing windows will never see. Six letters go out, and six chosen families move in, sold by a salesman nobody can find in any record. On the hill beside them, a mansion that has stood dark for fifteen years suddenly sends smoke up its chimney on Halloween. A delivery boy spins stories of a cliff and an asylum; a girl in a witch costume names her price; a boy at a window watches someone limp through a side door. By morning there is a body in a four-poster bed, a newspaper that leaves things out, and a girl who knows more than the obituary does.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “Even before anyone dies, Chapters 1–4 are built to make the reader suspicious of ordinary details.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2A normal rental building, or Something stranger? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ A normal rental buildingSomething stranger ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
Barney Northrup sends letters to six chosen families→
Otis Amber tells the tale of the dare and the cliff→
Smoke rises from a chimney cold for fifteen years→
Turtle stays in the mansion at two dollars a minute→
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
Raskin fills Sunset Towers by invitation rather than by open advertisement because , which shows that .
Part 5
Standardized Test
Reading passage · Renting an Apartment · Words in Context & Central Ideas · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
🎯 You already have the skills from the sections above — this is just a fun way to meet real SAT & TOEFL-style questions. Read the passage (the highlighted words are tested below), then answer the questions below. Tap an answer to select it, then tap it again to confirm — you can change your choice until you confirm.
In Chapter 1, six families sign for apartments they toured only once, sold by a stranger’s smooth talk. In the real world, moving into an apartment runs on paperwork instead of charm. The renter, called a tenant, and the owner, called a landlord, sign a lease: a written contract that sets the monthly rent, the length of the stay, and the rules both sides accept. Once signed, a lease binds the landlord just as firmly as it binds the tenant.
Each side of a lease controls different things. The landlord sets the rent before the signing, keeps the right to enter for repairs with proper notice, and usually collects a deposit — money held aside and returned only if the rooms come back undamaged. The tenant gains something powerful in exchange: the apartment becomes a legal home, and the owner cannot barge in at will, raise the rent mid-lease, or force the tenant out without cause and a court process. Ownership, in other words, is not the same as command.
The owner’s greatest power comes earlier, in choosing who signs at all. Landlords compare applicants through screening: checking income, past addresses, and references to judge who will likely pay on time. Fair-housing laws limit this power, forbidding owners to reject renters because of race, religion, sex, disability, or children. What no ordinary landlord does is what Barney Northrup does: skip applications entirely and invite six particular strangers by name. A full building is normal; a hand-picked one is a puzzle.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1What is the main idea of the passage?SAT · Central Ideas
2According to the passage, a lease is ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
3To enter a rented apartment for repairs, the passage says a landlord must ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
4In the passage, lease means ___.SAT · Words in Context
5In the passage, a deposit is ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
6In the passage, screening means ___.SAT · Words in Context
7According to the passage, fair-housing laws forbid rejecting renters because of ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
8The passage suggests that after a lease is signed, ownership alone does not let a landlord ___.SAT · Inference
9Why does the author call a hand-picked building “a puzzle”?SAT · Inference
10Which detail from Chapter 1 does the passage treat as abnormal?TOEFL · Factual Information
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 1 “The Perfect Neighbor”
Barney Northrup fills a whole building with people chosen for reasons nobody knows yet. Imagine you could pick the six neighbors in your own building or on your street. Who would you choose, and what would each one be chosen for? 6–10 sentences. End by revealing the one “mistake” you might make on purpose.
You can start with: “If I could fill a building with chosen neighbors, the first letter would go to...”
0 / 40 words minimum
🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 1 Complete!
You finished Chapters 1–4 of The Westing Game.
Here are your auto-graded results:
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points out of 100
Your Writing
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Ellen Raskin. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Ellen Raskin’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
