More on Ellen Raskin

Ellen Raskin portrait, presumably done by one of the fourth-graders who helped put together The Westing Heirs site.

I'm pleased but not surprised that so many people loved The Westing Game as kids. I'd forgotten all about Ellen Raskin's The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) until Levi mentioned it in the comments and you know, I've never read The Tattooed Potato, which I've just reserved at the library. She wrote a number of other books, too, which I'm going to have to track down. A quick google search revealed that Raskin was a commercial artist and an illustrator of children's books before she wrote her own. She did the original jacket illustration for Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. The first of her own was a picture book called Nothing Ever Happens on My Block --check out that groovy 70s cover. I'd love to get my hands on a copy. There's a terrific site devoted to her work where you can see the manuscript of The Westing Game and listen to Ellen Raskin herself talk about the book's design. There's also a fun site devoted to The Westing Game designed by a group of fourth-graders.

Look:

Go to this bibliography to see a list of all the books she wrote and/or illustrated and more images. Some of them would make lovely prints.

Comments

[Levi Stahl]

I'm going to use this post as another excuse to say THANK YOU INTERNETS for having all that good stuff on you and easily findable! And for facilitating discussion of said good stuff, so that I can go read The Westing Game and Stephanie can go read The Tattooed Potato and the sum total of happiness in the universe can be increased!

I really don't stop to marvel at this stuff quite often enough, so I hope you'll forgive me for doing so here.

[babelbabe]

I LOVE The Tattooed Potato - it's not as polished as The Westing Game but it's funnier.

[kittenpie]

That's the Dylan I had as a child - also I loved her book Spectacles, about a girl gettign classes. Funny, and well-applied to me. Smart mama I had back then. But OMG - the Tattooed Potato is FABULOUS! You're going to love it.

[Steph]

THANK YOU INTERNETS indeed. I love the internet.

And I am loving The Tattooed Potato. Although it feels awfully familiar. I think I must have read it as a kid. I think the library copy I'm reading is a first edition. It's got a lovely potato tattoo on the back that I'll scan and post here soon.