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The Westing Game · Garden Heights
Part 3
for The Westing Game · Part 3 · Chapters 9–12
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 3
Part 3 turns Sunset Towers into a marketplace where everyone is trading — and almost nobody is paying cash. Grace Wexler brushes and braids Turtle’s hair, suddenly sweet, hoping flattery will buy her daughter’s clues; Turtle keeps them. At her long party, Judge J.J. Ford quizzes her guests, decides Grace’s claimed Westing kinship is invented, and tallies the heirs with real Westing histories — Mr. Hoo’s old lawsuit, Sandy McSouthers fired from the Westing plant, and finally George Theodorakis, identified in an old caption as Violet Westing’s escort. At the coffee-shop meeting Theo proposes pooling clues for equal shares, Mr. Hoo produces Sydelle Pulaski’s missing notebook, and Sydelle reveals that her shorthand is written in Polish — worthless to whoever took it. Then the first bomb bursts the kitchen’s tomato-sauce cans, and while the tenants argue over whether it was an accident, Judge Ford quietly decides to hire a private investigator.
Omniscient narration, red herrings, and the dramatic irony of a braided bribe
Cross-Curricular
What a share of stock is: owners, brokers, and why prices move
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
Ch.9
Lost and Found — notes bloom on the elevator wall: Sydelle demands her stolen notebook back, and suddenly everyone lists something missing — Turtle’s Mickey Mouse clock, Flora Baumbach’s pearls, jewelry from the Wexler apartment. Other signs invite the players to a clue-sharing meeting in the coffee shop and to an evening party at Judge Ford’s. Grace turns unexpectedly tender, brushing and braiding Turtle’s hair while fishing for her clues; Turtle enjoys the attention and surrenders nothing.
Ch.10
The Long Party — Judge Ford’s party is an investigation with refreshments. Grace, pressed about her Westing kinship, gives a muddled answer about relations on her father’s side, and the judge privately writes her off as a pretender. Ford tallies what she already knows: she herself, Mr. Hoo — who once sued Sam Westing — and Sandy McSouthers, fired years ago from the Westing plant, all have histories with the dead man.
Ch.11
The Meeting — Theo calls the coffee shop to order and proposes pooling every team’s clues for an equal split of the winnings. Mr. Hoo produces Sydelle’s missing notebook, insisting he simply found it on a restaurant table — and Sydelle reveals the punch line: her shorthand is written in Polish, so the thief stole nothing but paper. Anonymous written questions follow, revealing among other things that Turtle’s real name is Tabitha-Ruth.
Ch.12
The First Bomb — a blast in the coffee-shop kitchen bursts the tomato-sauce cans, leaving Catherine Theodorakis red-splattered but not badly hurt while the tenants argue over whether it was a bomb at all. Sydelle and Angela begin translating the notebook into English, interrupted by Turtle hunting for the newspaper — she wants the stock pages. An old newspaper caption identifies George Theodorakis as Violet Westing’s escort, and the judge decides to hire a private investigator.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 9–12, then answer each question.
💼Knowledge Bank · The Words of the Trading Floor
Finance · Market VocabularyThe stock market has a vocabulary built for speed, because a trading floor rewards whoever understands first. A share is one slice of ownership in a company, and the people who hold shares are its shareholders. Ordinary buyers do not walk onto an exchange themselves; they hire a broker, a licensed go-between who places orders for a fee called a commission. All the shares a person owns, taken together, form a portfolio, and a careful investor spreads a portfolio across different businesses so that one bad month cannot sink everything at once. When a company divides part of its profit among shareholders, each slice of that payout is a dividend. Buying carefully studied businesses and holding them patiently is investing; buying whatever might jump by Friday is speculation, and the market charges dearly for confusing the two. Turtle Wexler, age thirteen, already knows most of these words, which is precisely what makes her dangerous in a building full of adults who only think they understand money.
shorthandn.Ch.9
A fast writing system of strokes and symbols
“Sydelle’s notebook was filled with neat shorthand.”
coaxv.Ch.9
To persuade gently with flattery or kindness
“Grace tried to coax the clues out of Turtle.”
speculationn.Ch.9
Risky investing made in hope of quick profit
“Buying stocks on a hunch is pure speculation.”
evasiveadj.Ch.10
Avoiding a direct answer
“Her evasive reply made the judge suspicious.”
pretendern.Ch.10
A person claiming a place that is not theirs
“The judge decided her guest was a pretender.”
alliancen.Ch.11
A partnership formed for mutual benefit
“Theo hoped an alliance would open every team’s clues.”
anonymousadj.Ch.11
Written or done without a name attached
“Each question was anonymous, folded, and passed forward.”
transcribev.Ch.12
To write something out in another form
“Sydelle agreed to transcribe her notes into English.”
brokern.Ch.9
A person licensed to trade stocks for clients
“Turtle’s broker took her order over the phone.”
debrisn.Ch.12
Scattered pieces left after something breaks
“Debris and red sauce covered the kitchen floor.”
ⓘ 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 rapid writing system that uses strokes and symbols instead of full words is ___.Ch.9
2To ‘transcribe’ notes is to write them out in another form.Ch.9
3An answer that avoids giving a direct reply is ___.Ch.10
4Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.11–12
Word choices:alliancedebrisshorthandpretender- some words will not be used
Theo proposed an that would pool every team’s clues.
The kitchen blast left and tomato sauce everywhere.
5‘Speculation’ means investing only in safe choices with guaranteed returns.Ch.9
6A person licensed to buy and sell stocks for customers is a ___.Ch.12
7To ‘coax’ someone is to force them to obey with threats.Ch.9
8Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.10–12
Word choices:brokerevasivespeculationanonymous- some words will not be used
Grace gave an answer about her Westing relatives.
Turtle called her to place her first order.
9A note written without the writer’s name attached is ___.Ch.11
10A person who claims a place or connection that is not truly theirs is a ___.Ch.10
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 9–12.
🏛Knowledge Bank · How an Exchange Sets a Price
Economics · Supply & DemandA stock exchange looks chaotic, but underneath it is simply a very fast auction. Buyers announce the most they will pay, called the bid, and sellers announce the least they will accept, called the ask; a trade happens the instant the two numbers meet. Nobody in an office decides what a share is worth. The price is discovered, minute by minute, from thousands of competing offers, which is why economists call the process price discovery. What moves the numbers is information. Good news about a company pulls buyers in, and their competition bids the price up; bad news sends sellers hunting for anyone willing to take shares off their hands, and the price slides. A century ago the results clattered out of a machine on a paper ribbon called ticker tape, and each company was reduced to a short code of letters — its ticker symbol. That is the detail Turtle knows and most of Sunset Towers does not: to a person who reads the daily listings, a few capital letters are not gibberish but the name of a company.
1Why does Grace suddenly brush and braid Turtle’s hair in Ch.9?Ch.9
2What does Theo propose at the coffee-shop meeting?Ch.11
3Mr. Hoo says he found Sydelle’s notebook on a table in his restaurant.Ch.11
4Why is the stolen notebook useless to whoever took it?Ch.11
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 9–12. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.9–12
Mr. Hoo hands back the notebook, and Sydelle reveals it is in Polish.
Judge Ford decides to hire a private investigator.
Judge Ford quizzes Grace about her Westing relatives at the party.
Notes about missing belongings crowd the elevator wall.
An explosion in the coffee-shop kitchen sprays tomato sauce.
6Judge Ford throws her party mainly so the tenants can relax and celebrate together.Ch.10
7What does the first “bomb” in the coffee shop turn out to have done?Ch.12
8What does the newspaperman tell Judge Ford?Ch.12
9Turtle trades her clues to Grace in exchange for the braids and compliments.Ch.9
10What does Judge Ford decide to do by the end of Ch.12?Ch.12
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Ellen Raskin tells the story across Chapters 9–12.
📖Knowledge Bank · One Narrator, Sixteen Suspects
Literary Craft · Irony Across ViewpointsMost mysteries follow one detective, but Raskin hands the story to an omniscient narrator who drifts from apartment to apartment, dipping into one mind after another. The choice has a price and a payoff. The price is distance: no single character becomes the reader’s only guide. The payoff is irony, because the reader constantly knows things the characters do not — that Grace’s sudden tenderness has a motive, that a hostess is really conducting interviews, that a notebook everyone wants cannot be read. Raskin also litters the chapters with the mystery writer’s favorite tool, the red herring: a false trail laid with real care, like the wave of lost-and-found notices that makes every tenant look like a thief. Yet she plays fair. Every genuine clue is on the page, mixed in with the noise, which is why the book rewards a second reading. The skill these chapters teach is the reader’s own: hold every voice lightly, trust no single account, and sort the signal from the misdirection.
Omniscient narrator
Raskin’s narrator drifts through every apartment in turn, letting the reader collect what no single heir ever sees.
Dramatic irony
The reader knows why Grace’s hands turn gentle in Turtle’s hair; Turtle almost knows — and the gap is the comedy.
Red herring
Lost pearls, a missing clock, a returned notebook: the chapters scatter false trails so that every reader plays detective badly.
1A narrator who can move into any character’s thoughts is called ___.Ch.9–12
2Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.9–12
Word choices:omniscientherringsonnetcliffhanger- some words will not be used
4Raskin limits the narration strictly to what Turtle sees and hears.Ch.9–12
5Sydelle’s Polish shorthand turns the theft of her notebook into ___.Ch.11
6Interrupting the meeting with a blast from the kitchen is a technique meant to ___.Ch.11–12
7A red herring is designed to lead readers straight to the correct solution.Ch.9–12
8Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.9–12
Word choices:ironysuspensemetaphorrhyme- some words will not be used
The gap between what Grace says and what she wants is dramatic .
Cutting off the meeting mid-question builds .
9Because the narration moves among all the heirs, the reader holds more of the picture than any single character.Ch.9–12
10Chapters 9–12 mainly work to ___.Ch.9–12
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
💡Knowledge Bank · Tips, Rumors, and Real Information
Critical Thinking · Evaluating SourcesMarkets and mysteries run on the same fuel: information of uneven quality. A fact can be checked by a stranger — a price in a printed table, a name on an old society page, a date in a court record. A rumor travels faster but carries no receipt; it changes shape at every retelling, the way the coffee-shop blast becomes a bomb before anyone smells the tomato sauce. Between them sits the tip: a claim that might be gold and might be bait, offered by someone whose interest you cannot see. Investors face this constantly. Prices move on reports and rumors alike, so a careful buyer asks the detective’s questions — who says so, how could they know, and what do they gain if I believe it? Judge Ford models the discipline in these chapters. She does not spread her suspicions; she buys better information, hiring a professional to replace guesses with records. That habit has a name that fits a courtroom and a stock exchange equally well: demand the evidence.
Think back over these chapters. An elevator wall goes shaggy with notices — a notebook, a clock, a string of pearls, each note a small accusation pinned at eye level. A mother’s hands turn unexpectedly gentle in her daughter’s hair, and the daughter, who wants the gentleness to be real, still will not sell what she knows. Upstairs a judge pours drinks and studies faces the way she once studied testimony. A stolen notebook comes home unreadable, its secrets folded inside a second language. Then the kitchen goes off like a cannon, and the reddest stain in the room turns out to be tomato sauce — while one girl checks the stock pages before the air has cleared.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “Chapters 9–12 treat information as the real currency of the Westing game.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2Investing on information, or Gambling on a guess? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ Investing on informationGambling on a guess ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
Grace gives a muddled account of her Westing kin→
Sydelle wrote her shorthand in Polish→
Cans of tomato sauce explode in the kitchen→
A reporter links George Theodorakis to Violet Westing→
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
Turtle checks the newspaper’s stock listings every day because , which shows that .
Part 5
Standardized Test
Reading passage · What a Share of Stock Is · 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.
A share of stock is a small slice of ownership in a company. A business that wants to grow — to build a factory, hire workers, or launch an invention — needs money, and one way to raise it is to divide ownership into thousands of identical pieces and sell them. The money raised this way becomes the company’s capital, and every buyer of a piece becomes a shareholder, an actual part-owner of the business. If the company later divides some of its profit among the owners, each shareholder’s payment is called a dividend.
Shares change hands at a stock exchange, which works like a nonstop auction. Most people never bid there in person; instead they call a broker, a licensed trader who buys or sells on a customer’s behalf for a fee. No official sets the price of a share. It is settled minute by minute by supply and demand — when more people want to buy than to sell, the price climbs, and when sellers outnumber buyers, it falls.
Because prices answer to news, rumor, and mood, they can be volatile, jumping or sinking in a single afternoon. Careful investors protect themselves by spreading money across different companies and by judging each one on its record rather than on a hot tip. Anyone can follow the results, because newspapers print tables listing each company under a short code of letters, with the day’s price beside it. A reader who studies those columns every morning — even a thirteen-year-old with braids — is watching thousands of strangers vote on what her choices are worth.
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, why does a company sell shares in the first place?TOEFL · Factual Information
3In the passage, capital refers to ___.SAT · Words in Context
4The word dividend in the passage is closest in meaning to ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
5According to the passage, what does a broker do?TOEFL · Factual Information
6In the passage, volatile means ___.SAT · Words in Context
7According to the passage, what makes a share’s price climb?TOEFL · Factual Information
8How does the passage say careful investors protect themselves?TOEFL · Factual Information
9The passage suggests that the price printed beside a ticker symbol represents ___.SAT · Inference
10Which Part 3 situation does this passage BEST explain?SAT · Inference
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 3 “The Hot Tip”
In these chapters, clues, rumors, and flattery all get traded like money — and Turtle bets ten thousand dollars on stocks she picked from the letters of her clues. Write about a time you made a decision based on a tip, a rumor, or a hunch instead of checked facts. What did it cost or win you, and what would you check first next time? 6–10 sentences.
You can start with: “The tip sounded too good to ignore, so before I had checked a single fact...”
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 3 Complete!
You finished Chapters 9–12 of The Westing Game.
Here are your auto-graded results:
-
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.
