How The Westing Game Was Won, a guest post by author Alyson Gerber

I spent a lot of time in the library growing up. Not because I liked books. Because I was always losing my pencil. My librarian kept a cup of freshly sharpened pencils on the reference desk—just in case you needed one. You didn’t even have to ask. For a kid with undiagnosed ADHD, who spent most of the school day feeling ashamed and afraid and in need of a pencil—the library was safe.

Even still, I didn’t like reading. I didn’t believe books were fun. The books I was assigned in school made me feel small and bored and bad about myself. But my librarian never gave up. She read to our class in big voices and funny accents, even when we all thought we were too old. I liked when the kids were in charge and smart and good at things in ways the adults around them didn’t expect. I wanted to be like those kids.

When I was handed The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, the Newbery Medal-winning mystery, in which sixteen heirs to Sam Westing’s fortune are paired up to compete for control of his business and millions, I thought the cover looked important and adult. It had an embossed gold medal on the front that I’d learned in class went to the most distinguished book of the year. To me that medal meant one thing: This was a book for smart kids and readers.

I read the whole story as fast as I could. Then, I read it again. I loved it. I couldn’t believe a book this cool and fascinating that didn’t underestimate kids had won one of the biggest book awards. Until that moment, I had no idea that a book with literary merit could also be an adventure, a puzzle, a game. I didn’t realize a book could change the way I saw the world and myself. 

By taking a genre that is known to resonate with readers, voracious and not—the mystery—but not underestimating the reader, The Westing Game won me over. This one book turned me—the impossible, distracted, reluctant kid—into a reader and ultimately a writer.

When I started writing the Liars Society series, I couldn’t get the idea of a mystery set at a New England prep school out of my head. I grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, in the shadow of Phillips Academy Andover, and I went to boarding school. I always wanted to create a distinct and relatable story that took place in this mysterious, insular world. I just wasn’t sure where to start. But then, as luck would have it, I learned a secret about myself that changed everything about my life. I started to wonder: What if you woke up tomorrow and discovered you weren’t the person you always thought you were?

I kept going back to a line from the Westing Game, “It will be up to the other players to decide who you really are.” The line made me question—Who gets to decide who we are? 

It wasn’t just the Westing Games’ big concepts that inspired my twisty mystery set in the world of the New England prep school, featuring a secret society, a mysterious island, dangerous family secrets, and two narrators—the ultimate insider and a fish-out-of-water scholarship student. I wanted to write a smart, thoughtful mystery series that would excite readers into thinking critically. I thought it was important to have the story revolve around young, kid characters. But also leave space for adult characters with intriguing backstories. My goal was to create an intergenerational puzzle that didn’t underestimate readers set in a vivid world with characters that felt like real people and high stakes that would grab even the most reluctant students and show them they were readers too.

Reading a complicated mystery with all those elements had made me feel important. As a kid, I remember immediately being sucked into the unanswered questions, the overlooked details, and of course the game. I felt like a detective, a player, as well as a sophisticated thinker.

I’m not alone in that feeling. When I asked librarians and authors about The Westing Game, Michelle Jarrett, library supervisor for the school district of Osceola County, said, “I think it was the first time I realized that books written for kids were actually written for smart kids.”

“I can actively remember reading The Westing Game in fourth grade,” said Stuart Gibbs, NYTimes bestselling author of Spy School. “I can clearly recall being absolutely astounded by several twists in the story as well as if I had experienced the events myself. The act of reading that book was a seminal experience in my life. To this day, when I write, I try to provoke that same response in my readers. When something has an impact on you that lasts the rest of your life . . . That’s great literature.”

Amanda Hunt, Library Media Specialist, said, “Reading the Westing Game as a child felt like unlocking a treasure chest of mystery, wit, and surprises. It was the first book that showed me how powerful and playful storytelling could be.”

I wanted The Liars Society readers to feel smart and powerful too. I also wanted them to have fun. So, I wrote a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat story about secrets and lies, power and privilege, about deciding what kind of person you want to be. The Liars Society asks readers to consider big questions: Are we defined by our family? Are we defined by our worst mistakes? What are you supposed to do when someone you should be able to trust is lying to you?

My hope is that The Liars Society will win over kids who define themselves as readers and those who don’t, at least not yet, as they consider who they are now and who they want to be.

Alyson Gerber is the bestselling author of The Liars Society, a middle grade mystery set at a New England prep school. The sequel—The Liars Society #2: A Risky Game, will be in stores April 1.

The Liars Society is a USA Today bestseller, Barnes & Noble Bookseller Favorite, an American Booksellers Association’s Best Books for Young Readers, Roku’s Best Book of the Month, Bookshop’s Favorite New Books, as well as a nominee for the Texas Bluebonnet Award and Indiana’s Young Hoosier Award. Alyson grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, has an MFA from The New School in creative writing, and now lives in New York City with her family. Learn more at https://www.alysongerber.com.

Filed under: Middle Grade, Middle Grade Fiction