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The London Eye MysterySiobhan Dowd
The London Eye Mystery
by Siobhan Dowd
Ted's cousin gets on the London Eye and does not get off. Ted, whose brain runs on a different operating system, works out how.
A story about children and families, adventurous and thoughtful in tone. We would put it with children of 9–12, and at a reading age of about 10 for reading alone.
Worth knowing before you buy
- Separated from family
None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.
Our take on this book
Ted watches his cousin Salim get into a pod on the London Eye; thirty minutes later the pod empties and Salim is not in it. While the adults panic, Ted — whose brain, as he puts it, runs on a different operating system — works methodically through the impossible problem, because the way he thinks is exactly what the mystery needs. Siobhan Dowd wrote a genuine, fairly-clued puzzle and, in Ted, one of the warmest and most convincing autistic narrators in children's fiction, whose difference is drawn as a strength without ever being labelled or made saintly. The subject matter — a missing child — is tense and there is family distress, but nothing frightening or violent, and the ending is a relief. For a nine- to twelve-year-old it is a clever, kind, genuinely gripping detective story, and a quietly brilliant way to help any child understand a mind that works differently from their own.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
Born to PlayDan Freedman
Front DeskKelly Yang
GhostJason Reynolds
Goggle-EyesAnne Fine
No Ballet Shoes in SyriaCatherine Bruton
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.