#9 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (1978)
169 points

It seems smarter and funnier, and altogether more perfect every time I reread it. – Jenne Abramowitz

Simply stated the best book ever. It stands the test of time, and I give it to kids every year. Turtle, while incredibly unlikeable, is loveable just the same, and the quirky characters have just the right amount of strange. Raskin also managed to do the “what-happened-in-the-future” part of it right (unlike some awful epilogues of late). I do wish that David Lynch would make this into a movie. - Stacy Dillon

Oh, Ellen, why did you die so young? – Susan Van Metre

I was once at a Books of Wonder Christmas party when Peter Glassman started popping some children’s literature trivia at me. I correctly answered his question about Evaline Ness, but then he asked a question that just baffled me. “What is the only Newbery winning jacket illustrated by someone who would later go on to win their own Newbery?” I was stumped. Couldn’t for the life of me figure it out. The answer? Ellen Raskin illustrated the original cover for Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time then later would go on to win a Newbery for The Westing Game. Raskin originally intended to be a freelance commercial artist anyway, and she did about a thousand book jackets in her day. Not too surprising that L’Engle’s would have crossed her plate. Of course, according to Anita Silvey, “she had always hoped to win a Caldecott Medal for illustration.”  Instead she got a Newbery.

The plot description from the book reads, “Sixteen people were invited to the reading of the very strange will of the very rich Samuel W. Westing.  They could become millionaires, depending on how they played the game.  The not-quite-perfect heirs were paired, and each pair was given $10,000 and a set of clues (no two sets of clues were alike).  All they had to do was find the answer, but the answer to what?  The Westing game was tricky and dangerous, but the heirs played on, through blizzards and burlaries and bombs bursting in the air.  And one of them won!”  Oddly cheery recap, that.

American Writers for Children Since 1960: Fiction says that the book came about in this way: “It was begun in 1976, the Bicentennial year, which prompted the use of the words of ‘America the Beautiful’ as clues. The death of Howard Hughes was much in the news at the time, which inspired the strange will and multiple heirs. She [Raskin] intended the book to have a historical background and set it on the shores of Lake Michigan, where she grew up. Wisconsin had a history of labor disputes (perhaps she remembered the career of her Grandfather Raskin, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World who was murdered at age thirty-four), so she chose to write about a slain industrialist. Raskin said, though, that as she wrote, ‘My tribute to American labor history ended up a comedy in praise of capitalism.’ It was a true Bicentennial book.” Also, the working title was Eight Imperfect Pairs of Heirs.  Proof positive that working titles sometimes bite.

If she was any character in the book, it’s easy to guess which one. “Raskin was certainly Turtle Wexler, and The Westing Game as a tribute to capitalism is not surprising because she was a capitalist herself. She maintained a portfolio of stocks and played the market successfully. She was very proud that she was

#9 Bark, George by Jules Feiffer (1999)
113 points

This is the very first book I ever read at story time, and it has since become my secret weapon. It never fails to get a laugh, and I love the anticipation I feel as the surprise ending approaches especially when I know there are kids in the audience who’ve never heard it before. – Katie Ahearn

This book has a special place in my heart, since it is the first book that my son Timothy was willing to proudly read aloud to anyone who would listen. I’ve used it in many library storytimes, and it always goes over well. Always. It’s got predictability, repetition, animal sounds, expressive drawings, and lovely surprising humor. – Sondra Eklund

One of my all time favorite read alouds. I love the expressions of George’s mother, and the kids eat this book up. So to speak. – DeAnn Okamura

Because it works every time. – Laura Reed

My favorite readaloud book of all time.  I mean it.  It’s true.  To my mind, it’s a perfect book.  The plot, the characters, the simplicity, and the sheer amount of use you can get out of it.  I have read this book to five-year-olds.  I have read this book to teenagers.  I have read this book to adults.  I have even read this book to tweens (who, in a way, are even harder to please than teens) and everyone agrees, George is great.  George is tops.  George is here to stay.

Horn Book describes the plot as, “When George, a lanky puppy, is told by his mother to bark, he answers with a ‘meow’ and then a series of other animal noises. When she takes him to a human vet, the man pulls animal after animal out of George’s throat. The problem seems to be solved, until the last page when George opens his mouth and ‘Hello’ comes out.”

Strange to think that my favorite readaloud would come from such a hip satirist.  Though he began as a playwright, screenwriter, and cartoonist (he was the first cartoonist commissioned by The New York Times to create comic strips for their Op-Ed page!) lately Mr. Feiffer has been turning his attention to the child side of things. His most recent picture book collaborations have been with his daughter Kate and have included the really quite fantastic My Side of the Car as well as others.

The book’s origin story was told to me when I hosted Mr. Feiffer alongside Nick Bruel, Laurie Keller, and David Roman in a Children’s Literary Salon at NYPL on humor in children’s books.  In that Salon Mr. Feiffer told us that when his daughter was young she would lie on the top of her bunk bed and he would lie on the bottom bunk and tell her a story out of his head.  Sometimes they were very good but often Mr. Feiffer would fall asleep on that bunk and totally forget whatever it was he told her.  In the case of Bark, George, however, he had an inkling that this time he should probably write the story down before he forgot it.  He did, went to sleep, and when he woke up he had no memory of writing it.  He just saw it there on the paper and realized what had happened.

I think Publishers Weekly put its finger squarely on why this book is so amazingly popular.  “Feiffer reverses the old-lady-who-swallowed-a-fly plot and boosts the giddiness with every barnyard anim