Looking for a good mystery in a great setting with genuine characters? Then you will love The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd! I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to finally read it. But better late than never.
Ted and Kat live in London and their cousin, Salim, visits. On the day that they visit the London Eye, Salim gets into the sealed pod without Ted & Kat but he never comes out. Vanished! Disappeared! Gone.
What I loved most about this book was the fact that Ted has Aspberger’s Syndrome but that wasn’t what this book was about. Sure, Ted’s ability to see things differently helped him to solve the mystery of his disappearing cousin but it wasn’t the main focus of the story.
I highly recommend listening to the audio version to hear the characters’s British accents which adds to the flavor of the London setting.
If you liked The London Eye Mystery, you may also enjoy the The Case of the Missing Marqess (book one of the Enola Holmes mysteries) by Nancy Springer or The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.
Here’s a pretty darn good book trailer created by michyamamoto on YouTube. Hope the creator doesn’t mind my sharing!
Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She’s spent years trying to teach David the rules from “a peach is not a funny-looking apple” to “keep your pants on in public!” in order to head off his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising new sort-of friend, and Kristi, the next-door friend she’s always wished for, it’s her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?–catalog summary
I’ve been wanting to read this one for a loooooong time; just never got around to it. But I’m sooooooo glad I finally did! For more books about learning disabilities, see my blog post for Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.
Check out the book trailer for Rules below from ScholasticKids.
Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there’s no delete button. She’s the smartest kid in her whole school — but no one knows it. Most people — her teachers and doctors included — don’t think she’s capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows . . . but she can’t, because Melody can’t talk. She can’t walk. She can’t write. Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind — that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever.
Melody was a such an amazing character that I stayed up all night with a flashlight camping in a tent to finish this book. It hooked me immediately and never let me go. I found the experience of stepping out of my comfortable shoes and stepping into Melody’s disability moving and profound. I think you will, too.
Mrs. D'Elia is the Librarian in a very purple elementary school library. She believes that every child should have at least one favorite book. If you are a child and you don't have a favorite book yet, come and visit me in the library because we need to fix that.
Looking for a good mystery in a great setting with genuine characters? Then you will love The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd! I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to finally read it. But better late than never.
