Book Summary
Ted and
Kate, brother and sister, take their visiting cousin Salim to the London Eye,
the great Ferris wheel attraction in the city. Salim hops on board and thirty
minutes later, the wheel stops and Salim is nowhere to be found. Ted is a
master of statistics but has a hard time interacting or understanding people.
When everyone in the book is hard to trust, Ted uses his talents to help solve
the mystery.
Reference
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Dowd, S. (2008). The London eye mystery. New York.
Random House.
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Impressions:
This book is largely about Ted, who has Asperger’s
and tells his story in first person with all the idiosyncrasies that make the
young boy different. Ted also has a hard time understanding idioms and phrases,
especially when taken them literally. The book is also written with British
English and has many alternate words in meaning. The mystery is really good and
plausible and Ted’s quirks help him, rather than limit.
Professional Review:
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.
Augusta, C. (2008). The London eye mystery. School
Library Journal, 54(2), 113.
Library Uses:
A
librarian could really use The London Eye Mystery to teach students about
idioms. The main character, ted, as Asperger’s and struggle understanding
idioms and phrases. A librarian could also use the book has an introduction to
London, since the book contains many facts. The book also contains slang, which
could also serve as a great activity for thesaurus work.
