| "THE LONDON EYE MYSTERY"
Author: Siobhan Dowd
Interest Level: Middle Grades (4-8)
ATOS Reading Level: 4.1
AR Points: 7.0
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12
Publisher: Random/David Fickling Books
Book Type: Hardcover
Pages: 325
Book Description:
Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye. But after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off–except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air?
Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the mystery.
This is an unput-downable spine-tingling thriller–a race against time.
Book Reviews:
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review): "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. " Ages 8-12
American Library Association (ALA) Booklist (Starred Review): "Everything rings true here, the family relationships, the quirky connections of Ted’s mental circuitry, and, perhaps most surprisingly, the mystery.”
American Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review): "This is a well-constructed puzzle, and mystery lovers will delight in connecting the clues.”
School Library Journal (Starred Review): "A dense mystery tied together with fully fleshed out characters and a unique narrator.”
The Horn Book (Starred Review): "The best mysteries have at their centers gifted but very human sleuths—their abilities balanced by equally significant flaws or idiosyncrasies. This one is no exception.”
Book Awards:
UK: Red House Children's Book Award 2008 Nominee
USA: American Booksellers Association, Book Sense Children's Pick List (2008)
About the Author:
Siobhan Dowd was named one of the “top 100 Irish-Americans” for her global anti-censorship work with the writers’s organization PEN America. Her first book for young readers, A Swift Pure Cry, has been shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and the BookTrust Teenage Prize. She lives in Oxford. |
