The London Eye Mystery

 The London Eye Mystery

by Siobhan Dowd

Dowd, S. (2007). The London Eye Mystery. Ney York: Yearling.

Grade Level: 3-5

Genre: Fiction/Mystery 

The London Eye Mystery is told from the perspective of Ted, a young boy with Autism. Ted lives with his mom, dad, and older sister Kat. Kat and Ted do not get along very well in the beginning. Ted's aunt Gloria and cousin Salim come to stay with them for a few days before they move to America. The family decides that they will take a trip to the London Eye ferris wheel to show Salim and Gloria. There is some trouble with the ticket sales, and so the three children decide that Salim should be the one to use the ticket given to them by a mysterious man. Salim goes up for the ride, and never comes down. The family is in a panic, and only Ted and Kat can find him. 

There is not very much literature written from the perspective of a person with a disability, and for that reason alone this would be a great book for young readers. I would use this book to talk about disability. While students are reading this book, they can keep track of the things that are a little bit different about Ted. We can use this as an opportunity to talk about why he is different, but also why he is just like anyone else. This is an opportunity to talk about social development and how we should treat people who seem to interact differently than many people.

I would also use this book to teach and work on predicting. Mysteries are a great opportunity for this as the students really do not know what will happen. Students will keep track of predictions and clues they used to make these predictions, and at the end of the book they will write about if they were right or wrong.

There are many opportunities for learning in this book, and it is a fun and easy read for many students. This is a book I would use in my classroom.