The London Eye Mystery

Starred review from December 3, 2007
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.

Starred review from February 1, 2008
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 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2008
The facts seem simple enough. While their mothers have coffee, Ted and his older sister, Kat, and their cousin, Salim, wait in aqueueto ridethe London Eye, an observation wheel that allows those locked in the glass-and-steel capsules to see 25 miles in every direction.A stranger from the front of the line offers one free ticket, and since Salim is the visitor, stopping in London before moving with hismum to New York, he takes it. Ted and Katsee himenter the capsule and follow his ride, but to their shock, he doesnt exit with his fellow riders. This book, verydifferent from Dowds searingA Swift Pure Cry(2007), is much more thana taut mystery. In Ted, Dowd offers a complex young hero, whose funny brain . . . runs on a different operating system (seemingly Aspergers Syndrome) and who is obsessed with shipping forecasts andwith hisinability to connect well with others.After several long days have passed with no sign of Salim, Ted must use the skills he has and overcome some of hispersonal challengesto find his cousin. Everything rings true here, the family relationships, the quirky connections of Teds mental circuitry, and, perhaps mostsurprisingly, the mystery. So often the mechanics of mystery dont bear close scrutiny, butthats notso here. A page turner with heft.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)