Summary. Ted, Kat, and their mom are touring London for just one day before cousin Salim and Aunt Glo leave for New York. Why not do something fun and ride the famous tourist attraction, "The London Eye?" And then it happens. Salim rides the Eye alone: "He went up on his own at 11.32, 24 May, and was due to come down at 12.02 the same day." But he never comes down. Somehow, in half an hour, within the sealed capsule of the Eye, he vanishes. Ted, whose brain "has a different operating system than other people's," tries to make sense of it all. Ted is a budding meteorologist, has Aperger Syndrome, and becomes an amateur detective as he searches for cluse to his cousin's disappearance. Grades 5 and up.Citation. Dowd, Siobhan. The London Eye Mystery. Oxford: David Fickling Books, 2007. Print.
My Impressions. London Eye has it all: great characters, missing persons desperately sought by loved ones, a fabulous setting, and best of all, the point of view we never expected: a teen dismissed by everyone tells the story. I learned a lot about what it might be like to have a disorder like Asperger Syndrome (AS) as I tried to outthink our amateur detective, Ted. How would I react when everyone tells me to just go away and let the grown ups figure it out? But the grownups, the 'normal people' can't figure it out at all. Ted uses his amazing powers of reasoning as well as his knowledge of meteorology to figure out what happened. The story has a resemblance to The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-time, but that won't take anything away from this enjoyable tale.
Library Uses. This book could start a discussion with teens on varying abiities among people, especially people we live and work and go to school with. It could also lead to an activity where the teens are called on to solve a mystery in a short period of time.
Awards. Rotherham Children’s Book Award 2009, Bisto Irish Book of the Year Award 2008, Redhouse Children’s Book Award 2008, Southwark Schools Book Awards 2008, Doncaster Book Award 2008, TES Special Educational Needs Children’s Book Award 2007, Coventry Inspiration Book Award 2009, 2008 Cybils Young Adult Bloggers Award, 2008 Essex Book Awards, Salford Children’s Book Award 2009, Stockport Short Novel Award 2009
Reviews. (Publisher Weekly) A 12-year-old Londoner with something like Asperger's syndrome narrates this page-turner, which grabs readers from the beginning and doesn't let go. As Ted and his older sister Katrina watch, their visiting cousin Salim boards a "pod" for a ride on the London Eye, a towering tourist attraction with a 360-degree view of the city-but unlike his fellow passengers, Salim never comes down. He has vanished. At the outset Ted explains that he has cracked the case: "Having a funny brain that runs on a different operating system from other people's helped me to figure out what happened." The tension lies in the implicit challenge to solve the mystery ahead of Ted, who turns his intense observational powers on the known facts, transforming his unnamed disability into an investigative tool while the adults' emotions engulf them. Dowd ratchets up the stakes repeatedly: is a boy in the morgue Salim? Has he drowned? Been kidnapped? Katrina and Ted work together to solve the puzzle, developing new respect for each other. The author wryly locates the humor as Ted wrangles with his symptoms (learning to lie represents progress) but also allows Ted an ample measure of grace. Comparisons to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time are inevitable-this release was delayed when Mark Haddon's book (from the same publisher) became a bestseller-but Dowd makes clearer overtures to younger readers. Just as impressive as Dowd's recent debut, A Swift Pure Cry, and fresh cause to mourn her premature death this year. Ages 8-12. (Feb.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
(School Library Journal) Gr 5-8-Ted and Kat lose their cousin Salim at the London Eye sightseeing attraction, "the largest observation wheel ever built." Given a free ticket by a stranger, Salim enters the ride, but he never emerges. Guilty about their part in the bungled outing, the siblings trace scraps of information that illuminate the boy's disappearance. Ted, who is something of an enigma himself, narrates the story. He has a neurological cross wiring that results in an encyclopedic brain and a literal view of the world. He finds it hard to read motivations and emotions, but excels at clue tracing and deduction. Kat, his older sister, deplores his odd behaviors but relies on his analytic brain while she does the legwork. The result is a dense mystery tied together with fully fleshed out characters and a unique narrator. Good mysteries for kids are rare, and this offering does the genre proud. London Eye is the best sort, throwing out scads of clues for discerning readers to solve the mystery themselves. Add to that Ted's literal translation of our world, his distanced view of an alien landscape of human interactions, and the ways he gains a better understanding of that world through the course of the novel, and the story is even more noteworthy. Suggest this as a read-alike to fans of Blue Balliett's Chasing Vermeer (Scholastic, 2004) or Lauren Tarshis's Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree (Dial, 2007).- Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information
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